On Thursday morning (4 Jan, 9:30 AM, GMT+7, Bangkok time), major indices in Asia Pacific continued falling as Japan reopened its market after the country faced a 7.6 magnitude earthquake on the first day of 2024, and investors also focused on the US Fed’s meeting minutes held in December, as it showed a likelihood for interest rate cuts in 2024, but did not state the exact time period. Meanwhile, the probability for a rate cut in March this year was lowered to around 60% from 70% earlier, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Japan’s NIKKEI slid by 1.15% to 33,078.98. South Korea’s KOSPI decreased by 0.93% to 2,582.99, and Australia’s ASX 200 dropped by 0.19% to 7,508.8.
As for stocks in China, Shanghai’s SSEC fell by 0.62% to 2,948.73. Hong Kong’s HSI dropped by 0.4% to 16,579.16, and Shenzhen’s SZI declined by 1.13% to 9,225.73,
Meanwhile, the US stocks market dropped on Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell by 0.76% to 37,430.19. NASDAQ slumped by 1.18% to 14,592.21, and S&P 500 decreased by 0.8% to 4,704.81. Meanwhile, VIX increased by 6.36% to 14.04.
As for commodities, oil prices rose on Wednesday following the protests in Libya that also shut down the Sharara oil field, causing concerns over disruption in oil supplies. Brent jumped by 3.1% to $78.25 per barrel, and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) surged by 3.3% to $72.70 a barrel.
This morning, Brent rose by 0.36% to $78.53 a barrel, and WTI climbed by 0.52% to $73.08 per barrel.
Meanwhile, gold futures grew by 0.42% to $2,051.4 per Troy ounce.
