Asian Stock Market: Inflation, China concerns weigh on sentiment

• Asian equities remain bearish as fears over inflation, Beijing based real-estate firms escalate.
• China factory-gate inflation refreshes 26-year high, CPI shoots as well.
• US CPI, PPI eyed amid Fed rate hike chatters, US stimulus in focus as well.

Asian shares track Wall Street losses during early Wednesday as reflation woes join sentiment-negative headlines from China.

While portraying the mood, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.60% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 prints a 0.55% daily fall ahead of the European session.

Although Fed Chair Jerome Powell tried to placate rate hike speculations and was joined by that talks that a dove may preside on the Fed’s throne. However, St. Louis Federal Reserve (Fed) President James Bullard said during the latest CNBC interview that he is expecting the US central bank to hike its benchmark rate twice in 2022, after it’s finished with winding down its bond-buying program.

The inflation woes also preside in Asia as China Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) cross the market consensus and previous readouts in October. That said, the PPI jumped to a fresh high in 26 years. It’s worth noting that a 50% slump in the share price of China’s real estate player Fantasia Group after a month-long trading halt also backs the recent concerns over property players’ troubles in Beijing and weighs on the mood. The same could be witnessed in the bearish prints seen in Chinese equities.

Fears emanating from the world’s largest commodity user weigh on the Antipodeans and share prices in Australia as well as New Zealand, despite upbeat individual catalysts. Australia’s Westpac Consumer Confidence came in better for November whereas New Zealand eases lockdown in Auckland, its biggest city.

Elsewhere, talks concerning US stimulus tried to tame the bears but the losses remain on the table. That said, South Korea’s KOSPI and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng drop around 1.0% whereas Indonesia’s IDX Composite prints 0.14% intraday losses at press time.

Markets in India also tracked the Asia-Pacific counterparts, declining 0.50% at the latest.

On a broader front, S&P 500 Futures decline 0.40% whereas the US 10-year Treasury yields consolidate the previous day’s losses around the six-week low near 1.46%.

Moving forward, the risk-off mood is likely to prevail unless the inflation fears recede, which in turn highlights today's US CPI and PPI data for October for fresh impulse.

Read: US October CPI preview: Inflation data unlikely to discourage gold bulls