1) Asian markets open lower following hotter US inflation in May
Asian stock markets opened in negative territory on Monday morning after an acceleration of US inflation in May raised investors’ concerns that the Fed could be more aggressive on the policy rate, seeing consumer prices might not reach its peak yet.
As of 9:28 local time in Thailand, Nikkei fell 2.81%, SSEC dipped 1.03%, Hang Seng Index plunged 2.68% and IDX Composite decreased 1.84%.
The market in Australia is closed for the holiday.
2) US inflation accelerated to 8.6% in May, beating 8.2% growth forecast
The May consumer price index for the U.S. accelerated by 8.6% year over year and 1.0% from April, crashing hopes that the rise in cost of living had peaked in the previous month. Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, only eased to 6.0% from 6.2%.
Economists were expecting a rise of 8.2% in April and 5.9% for the core index.
The Labor Department said on Friday that the surge in prices was “broad-based, with the indexes for shelter, gasoline, and food being the largest contributors.”
3) Several cases found in Shanghai, but no further lockdown announcement, yet
After the mass Covid-19 test on Saturday of 25 million residents in Shanghai, the authorities said that one symptomatic and four asymptomatic cases were found as of Sunday afternoon, while 10 new local symptomatic cases and 19 local asymptomatic cases were found a day earlier.
Still, Shanghai authorities stated that dine-in services will be allowed to resume in a number of restaurants and eateries in three suburban districts.
Residents will be restricted for two days, with testing taking 12 days.
China reported 275 new coronavirus cases for June 11, up from 210 new cases on Friday and 151 cases a day earlier.
Even though the infection rate of China is still low when compared to other countries, the second-largest economy continued to stay true to its zero-Covid policy.
