On Thursday, Australia’s Bureau of Statistics released the data that underlined the state of the local economy. According to the bureau, seasonally adjusted employment in April fell by 594,300 people compared to March. This information had a negative impact on the stocks across the Asia Pacific.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.72% to close at 5,328.70.
For example, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.74% to close at 19,914.78. At the same time, the Topix index fell 1.91% to finish its trading day at 1,446.55.
Also, South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.8% to close at 1,924.96.
Furthermore, mainland Chinese stocks declined on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.96% to around 2,870.34. In the meantime, the Shenzhen Composite decreased by 0.941% to approximately 1,805.70.
Moreover, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.43% as of its final hour of trading. Interestingly, shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dropped most of their gains. Nevertheless, shares of Tencent held fractionally higher.
It is worth noting that the stock earlier reached more than two years high, as the firm’s first-earnings surpassed expectations. Notably, online games revenue grew 31% year-on-year to 37.3 billion yuan. Moreover, the total smartphone game revenue reached 34.7 billion yuan for the March quarter.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and stocks
The U.S. Federal Reserve is the most famous central bank in the world. It is not surprising as the U.S. dollar is the global currency. Moreover, the U.S. has the largest economy in the world, and as well as the country spends hundreds of billions on the armed forces.
Recently, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that despite the measures, more may need to be done to boost the economy. It is not surprising as the coronavirus pandemic created enormous pressure on the economy. Millions of Americans across the country lost their jobs. Many of them decided to seek unemployment benefits. Moreover, some of the companies will go bankrupt. Hopefully, the Federal Reserve is ready to take additional steps to support the economy.
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