Stocks falter, dollar defensive after US presidential debate
Updates at 0245 GMT
By Ankur Banerjee
SINGAPORE, Sept 11 (Reuters) -Asian markets wobbled and U.S. stock futures slipped on Wednesday after Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump clashed in a keenly-awaited U.S. presidential debate.
The presidential hopefuls battled over abortion, the economy, immigration and Trump's legal woes at their combative first debate.
That left investors skittish in Asian trade as markets also geared up for U.S. inflation data that could influence the Federal Reserve's policy moves next week.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped 0.25%, S&P 500 futures EScv1 eased 0.38%, while the dollar was on the back foot. FRX/
Harris' late entry in the presidential race after President Joe Biden's withdrawal in July has tightened the race, prompting a reversal of trades that were put in place on expectations of a second Trump presidency.
While the debate is unlikely to sway near-term monetary policy, investors are focusing on fiscal policies and plans for the economy from the candidates.
"I don't think there's a lot for markets here," said Rob Carnell, ING's regional head of research for Asia-Pacific. "I think Harris seems to be managing Trump quite well."
"You'd expect if he (Trump) was doing better, that you'd see a strong dollar coming out of this. So I suppose that's the way the market is looking at it. It's a slight lean towards Harris."
The dollar index =USD, which measures the U.S. currency against six peers, was down 0.21% at 101.43 in Asian hours.
Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8%, while Chinese stocks eased again. The Shanghai Composite index .SSEC was 0.75% lower while the blue-chip index .CSI300 fell 0.16%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 1%.
INFLATION WATCH
Investor focus will soon switch to U.S. Labor Department's consumer price index report later on Wednesday for policy clues although the Federal Reserve has made it clear employment has taken on a greater focus than inflation.
The headline CPI is expected to have risen 0.2% on a month-on-month basis in August, according to a Reuters poll, unchanged from the previous month.
While the Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates next week, the size of the rate cut is still up for debate, especially after a mixed labour report on Friday failed to provide clarity on which way the central bank could go.
"What we needed to see to spur the Fed into greater action would be much more obvious evidence of slowdown/recession, and in particular in the labour market. And I don't think we saw that the last payrolls report," said ING's Carnell.
Markets are currently pricing in 66% chance of the U.S. central bank cutting rates by 25 basis points, while 34% chance is ascribed for a 50 bps cut when the Fed delivers its decision on Sept. 18, CME FedWatch tool showed.
The dollar remained defensive, with the yen JPY=EBS strengthening as much as 0.6% to 141.51 per dollar, highest since January, boosted by comments from Bank of Japan board member Junko Nakagawa.
Nakagawa reiterated in a speech that the central bank would continue to raise interest rates if the economy and inflation move in line with its forecasts.
In commodities, oil prices stabilized on Wednesday after dropping over 3% in the previous session, and still hovered near their lowest in three years after OPEC+ revised down its demand forecast for this year and 2025. O/R
Brent crude futures LCOc1 was last 0.68% higher at $69.65 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 0.75% to $66.25 a barrel.
World FX rates YTD http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Asian stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Reporting by Ankur Banerjee
Editing by Shri Navaratnam
To read Reuters Markets and Finance news, click on https://www.reuters.com/finance/markets For the state of play of Asian stock markets please click on: 0#.INDEXA
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務,允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容,但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限,並受以下條款與條例約束:(i)條款與條例;(ii)風險提示;(iii)完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊,僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意,我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成,也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料,僅適用於教育/資訊類用途,不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議,或是交易價格紀錄,或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容,包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接,皆爲‘按原狀’,並作爲一般市場評論所提供,而非投資建議。請理解和接受,所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容,並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性,而根據法律要求所編寫,而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊,相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。