The Asian stocks weaken again on the 4th as anxiety over the U.S. government bond interest rate spread again.
The Nikkei Average index (-2.13 percent) fell by 2 percent and the TOPIX (-1.04 percent) fell.
As of 3:57 p.m. on the same day, the Chinese stock market’s Shenzhen composite index (-2.89 percent) and Shanghai composite index (-2.06 percent) were also weakening at around 2 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (-2.19 percent) and Taiwan’s Self-Resident Index (-1.88 percent) were similar.
The KOSPI (-1.28 percent) and KOSDAQ (-0.49 percent) also closed lower.
Reuters reported that the broadest Asia-Pacific stock index (excluding Japan), fell 2.16% at one point in the morning.
Asian stocks weaken, U.S. bond rate to blame
The 10-year yield on U.S. government bonds rose to 1.477 percent in the market in Wednesday (3/3), threatening the 1.5 percent level again. It surpassed 1.6 percent last week, soaring 0.5 percentage point in 20 days, putting global stock markets on edge.
The stock market rebounded as the yield stabilized to early 1.4%. However, the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Average (-0.39%), the S&P 500 (-1.31%) and the Nasdaq (-2.7%) all fell on the same day as market interest rates were threatening the 1.5 percent level again.
As the dollar rose, prices of other low-income safe assets such as yen and gold fell relatively.
The yen/dollar exchange rate rose to 107.16 yen per dollar, a seven-month high.
The April gold price fell 1 percent to $1,715.80 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday. Gold is the lowest in nine months.
“The rate of interest on U.S. government bonds is much faster than most people expected,” said Hirokazu Kabeya, a strategist at Daiwa Securities in Japan. “There are observations in the market that authorities may start thinking about tightening monetary policy.”
In response, the financial market is waiting for words from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 4th.
