SINGAPORE – Markets across Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday as US stocks fell overnight. It comes as the World Health Organization warns that The omicron variant is spreading faster than any strain before.
Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 0.12% in early trading, while Topix was up 0.48%.
Korea’s Kospi lost 0.26% while in Australia, S&P / ASX 200 down 0.28%.
China will release some economic data on Wednesday morning, including industrial production and retail sales.
In the list, Chinese biotech company BeiGene will debut at the Star Market on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style board. The company has been listed in Hong Kong and Nasdaq in the US
US stocks fell on Tuesday as some big tech stocks fell and new inflation data continued to show strong price increases.
The Nasdaq Composite led the decline, falling 1.14% to 15,237.64. The S&P 500 fell 0.75% to close at 4,634.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average held up better than its counterparts but still fell 106.77 points, or 0.30%, to 35,544.18.
The Fed will wrap up its two-day policy meeting later Wednesday outside of state, and central bank Chairman Jerome Powell will speak in a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Omicron worries about the impact of oil prices
Investor sentiment is set to remain cautious after the World Health Organization on Tuesday warning that the new variant of Covid omicron is spreading faster than any previous strain, saying that the variant is probably present in most countries of the world.
Meanwhile, oil prices fall after the International Energy Agency said Oil demand is lower than expected the following year, hit by the new omicron variant.
“Oil prices fell overnight after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the oil market was back on track,” said Vivek Dhar, research director for energy and mining commodities at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. surplus this month and the surplus will deepen early next year. .
“The group’s forecast is projected to be driven by weaker demand related to the omicron variation of COVID ‑ 19, as well as stronger oil production from OPEC+, US, Canada and Brazil,” he wrote in a note today. Wednesday.
Crude oil prices continued to fall during Asian hours. US crude fell 0.48% to $70.4 a barrel.
Currency
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against its basket of currencies, was at 96.571, continuing its spike from above 96.3 previously.
The Japanese yen was trading at 113.76 per dollar, as it continued to weaken from levels around 113.5. The Australian dollar was little changed at 0.7106.
