Asian markets ended mostly lower on Thursday tracking the mixed finish on Wall Street overnight and as US Federal Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his hawkish stance on fighting inflation and cautioned there's no guarantee the US Fed can engineer a soft landing. Meanwhile, the US economy shrank at an annualized pace of 1.6 percent in the first quarter, reflecting a deeper contraction than the most recent estimate of a 1.5 percent. Japanese shares dropped and the yen weakened to a 24-year low overnight after data showed that Japan's monthly industrial production fell the most in two years, that stoking fears of an economic slowdown in Japan. However, Chinese shares gained after China's official gauges of factory and services activity returned to expansion in June following three months of contraction.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,398.62 | 37.10 | 1.10 |
Hang Seng | 21,859.79 | -137.10 | -0.62 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,911.58 | -30.77 | -0.44 |
KLSE Composite | 1,444.22 | -7.26 | -0.50 |
Nikkei 225 | 26,393.04 | -411.56 | -1.54 |
Straits Times | 3,102.21 | -32.66 | -1.04 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,332.64 | -45.35 | -1.91 |
Taiwan Weighted | 14,825.73 | -414.40 | -2.72 |
