On this Tuesday morning (26 Sep), most of the major indices in Asia Pacific markets had fallen as US bond yield and US dollar continued to strengthen, weakening other currencies. Both the possibility of US government shutdown and recent bond delinquency from Chinese property firms might be a bearish pressure on these indices as well.
South Korean KOSPI led the loss train today with over 1.1% drop under 2,470. Japan’s NIKKEI reversed its yesterday gain by loses 0.8% to 32,400. Hong Kong’s HSI, Australian ASX 200 and Taiwanese TWII both dropped by over 0.5%, plunging the indices to 17,640, 7,040 and 16,350 respectively.
Meanwhile, Shanghai’s, Shenzhen’s and Malaysian indices were spared by the bear with almost no change this morning.
On the other hand, US Futures has been bearish since last night as S&P 500 were losing 4,360 and NASDAQ were losing 14,860 as well. This has spiked the VIX to touch 18.0, implying the fear in the market that has been rising as well.
Commodities like energies were edging down as WTI crude oil were trading at $89.5 and Brent at $93.1 per barrel, while there’s a roll-over on natural gas and altogether with Russian-Ukraine conflict news in the black sea and Kerosene, hiking the new near-term natural gas price to $2.9 per MMBTU.
The US Dollar index or DXY had raised over 105.7, indicating the strength of USD as other currencies weakened. Gold price also confirmed this by dropping to $1,930 per Troy ounce.
Bond prices also dropped as the bond yield has been rising after central banks’ signaling last week. The 30-year bond price index dropped below 115 last night, compared to the average level of 120 this month and 130 last year, while its yield has jumped from 4.4% to 4.68% just in the last 5 trading days.
