SYDNEY: Asian shares slid and the dollar hit two-decade peaks on Monday (May 9) as US stock futures extended their decline on rate worries, while a tightening lockdown in Shanghai stoked concerns about global economic growth and recession.
“A series of rate hikes and hawkish communication came against a backdrop of plummeting Chinese and European activity, new plans for Russian energy bans and continued supply-side pressures,” warned analysts at Barclays.
“This creates the gloomy prospect of persistent inflation forcing central banks to hike rates despite sharply slowing growth.”
Chinese trade data for April were not quite as bad as feared, with exports up 3.9 per cent on the year and imports flat.
However, there was no let-up in China’s zero-COVID policy with Shanghai tightening the city-wide COVID-19 lockdown for 25 million residents.
Speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin might declare war on Ukraine in order to call up reserves during his speech at “Victory Day” celebrations also hurt market sentiment. Putin has so far characterised Russia’s actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation”, not a war.
S&P 500 stock futures led the way with a drop of 1.1 per cent, while Nasdaq futures shed 1.0 per cent. US 10-year bond yields edged up to a fresh top at 3.15 per cent.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures fell 1.5 per cent and FTSE futures 0.7 per cent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3 per cent, and Japan’s Nikkei 2.4 per cent. Chinese blue chips eased 0.8 per cent, while the yuan touched another 18-month low to trade at 6.7049 per dollar.
Investors were also tense ahead of the US consumer price report due on Wednesday where only a slight easing in inflation is forecast, and certainly nothing to prevent the Federal Reserve from hiking by at least 50 basis points in June.
Core inflation is actually seen rising by 0.4 per cent in April, up from 0.3 per cent the previous month, even as the annual pace dips a bit due to base effects.
“In Q1, the annualised monthly change in core CPI was 5.6 per cent,” noted analysts at ANZ. “That is too high for the Fed and we think the FOMC won’t be relaxed about inflation until the core number moderates to around 0.2 per cent m/m on a sustained basis.
“The Fed is not the only central bank facing inflation pressures. Increasingly, the guidance from the ECB is becoming a lot more hawkish.”
DOLLAR IN DEMAND
Fed fund futures are priced for rates reaching 1.75 to 2.0 per cent in July, from the current 0.75 to 1.0 per cent, and climbing all the way to around 3 per cent by the end of the year.
The diary is full of Fed speakers this week, which will give them plenty of opportunity to keep up the hawkish chorus.
The aggressive rate outlook saw the US dollar scale 20-year highs on a basket of majors to 104.080.
“Risk appetite is fragile and yield spreads continue to suggest further upside on the Dollar Index,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX strategist at Westpac.
“We look for ongoing demand for DXY on dips, with 104 already being probed and still potential for a run towards 107 multi-week.”
The euro was stuck at US$1.0510 and just a whisker above its recent lows of US$1.0481, while the dollar was very much in control against the Japanese yen at 131.07.
Oil prices see-sawed after the Group of Seven (G7) nations committed on Sunday to banning or phasing out imports of Russian oil over time.
After an initial dip, Brent was last quoted 12 cents higher at US$112.51, while US crude added 4 cents to US$109.81.
Gold was idling at US$1,872 an ounce, having struggled to gain any traction as a safe haven recently.