Asian markets ended the week on a positive note despite heightened risks of monetary tightening globally amid war risks pressing on inflation as well as renewed regulatory risk on Chinese tech sector.
Stocks in Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and Japan closed marginally higher with the MSCI Broad Market Asian Index ex Japan dipped by 1.58%.
Equites futures in the U.S marginally higher. The dollar index ticked up.
Chinese tech stocks dipped for a third day after Tencent Holdings Ltd. came out with a decision to shut down its game streaming service further hurting sentiment in a sector which was already struggling weeks ago on regulatory risks concern.
Meanwhile, Beijing launched a formal campaign to address in the potential abuse of algorithms by internet giants from ByteDance Ltd. to Tencent Holdings Ltd., taking aim at the way social media platform serve up ads and content to hook users.
Bank stocks in the U.S. fell for the sixth day amid increasing worries about a U.S. recession, driving a wedge between their performance and rising treasury yield in recent weeks.
On the Russian-Ukraine war front, European Union banned Russian coal as part of a first energy hit targeting Moscow’s crucial energy revenue.
Meanwhile, Japan is also considering to curb coal imports from Russia underscoring a major shift of policy from one of the world’s biggest energy importers.
Commodities market continued to rally amid supply disruptions sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine. JPMorgan strategist point towards commodities climbing further 40%.
The WTI is trading around $96 a barrel while Brent is trading around $100 a barrel.
