Most of the Asia Pacific indices fell on Tuesday (3 Oct) morning, due to the many currencies weakening relative to USD. This is caused by the rise of many countries’ bond yields, especially in the US as the market anticipated the Fed to raise rates further, following the comment of its officials for the need to do so. All said, resulting in bearish sentiment on many stock markets.
Hong Kong’s HSI had a major loss after its national holiday yesterday, the index fell by 3% under 17,300. Japan’s NIKKEI was also on the loss train as it took JPY 150 to trade for a single USD, the weakest since November last year when the BoJ intervened. NIKKEI fell by over 1.3%, dropping the index under 31,400. Australia’s ASX 200 also plunged by over 1.2% as well, dropping the index under 6,940. The only index that evaded the bear was Malaysia’s KLSE with a gain of 0.3% to hover over 1,420.
Meanwhile, the US Future rising streak was broken as the S&P 500 edged down near 4,300 again, same with NASDAQ that was unable to stand above 15,000 level. The VIX index reversed and headed to 18 again.
The energy commodities fell as the USD strengthened. WTI crude oil continued to slide under $88, and Brent also fell under $90. Meanwhile, natural gas fell to $2.83 per MMBTU.
US Dollar Index (DXY) headed to 107 as the 3 and 6 bond rate auctions continued to rise. The bearish gold trend still persisted as the price headed to $1,830 per Troy ounce, along with other currencies that pair with USD. In addition, there was a spike in Bitcoin (BTC) yesterday. The cryptocurrency rose to touch $28,000 briefly, the highest since August, but later fell to $27,500.
