- Stocks in Asia fell for the sixth day in a row Friday, weighed down by concerns about China and rising interest rates.
- A regional equity index opened lower, mirroring a decline on Wall Street on Thursday. Japan's, Australia's, Hong Kong's, and South Korea's share benchmarks all fell, while mainland China stocks varied.
- China remained firmly in the spotlight. The offshore yuan rose against the US dollar as the PBoC provided its strongest ever pushback against a weaker yuan via its daily reference rate. This followed reports that Chinese officials had directed state-owned banks to increase their support for the yuan.
- State-owned property developers have warned of significant losses, raising fears that the housing crisis is spreading from the private to government-backed firms.
- The yen rose modestly after Japan's consumer inflation slowed, lending support to the BoJ's stimulus policy. The dollar index fell another tenth on Thursday, extending its slide. Treasury rates were little unchanged after increasing again on Thursday to within a few basis points of their 2022 highs.
- This week's decline comes after the release of minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, which suggested members were mulling tighter policy, dashing optimism that the central bank was done hiking rates. US futures were essentially unchanged following the Nasdaq 100's biggest three-day drop since February. The S&P 500 lost 0.8%, marking its third daily loss.
- On the basis of strong economic data, global government bond yields reached 15-yr highs, albeit Australia's benchmark yields fell somewhat on Friday.
