Stocks in Asia-Pacific fell on Friday, as investors digested the release of a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation report that sent the 10-year Treasury yield above 2%.
The report showed a year-over-year rise of 7.5%, hotter than expected and the largest gain since 1982. Importantly, the 10-year Treasury yield rose above 2% after starting the year at 1.51%.
Mainland Chinese stocks declined on Friday. The Shanghai composite dropped 0.66% to end its trading day at 3,462.95. The Shenzhen component fell 1.546% to 13,224.38.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.34%, as of its final hour of trading.
In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.87% to close at 2,747.71, with shares of game developer Krafton plunging 12.79% after it announced a 84.9% year-on-year drop in its net profit for the fourth quarter.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia dropped 0.98% to 7,217.30.
U.S. stocks on Thursday
U.S. stocks suffered serious losses on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.1% to 14,185.64. The S&P 500 declined 1.8% to 4,504.08. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 526.47 points or 1.47% to 35,241.59.
U.S. stocks were volatile throughout the day, with all three major averages briefly turning positive at one point and the Dow Jones Industrial Average being down more than 600 points at session lows.
Finally, stocks finished deeply in the red. They declined as traders began to speculate the Federal Reserve would get more aggressive with its tightening policy to fight inflation.
On Thursday, big tech stocks fell with Microsoft falling 2.8%. E-commerce stock Spotify declined 3.4%, while Adobe dropped 5%.
Shares of Dow 30 component Disney rose 3.4% after Disney reported a quarterly earnings that surpassed expectations.
Also, shares of Coca-Cola rose 0.5% after the company reported earnings and revenue that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
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