By Zhang Mengying
Investing.com – Asia-Pacific stocks were up on Wednesday morning as fears of an economic downturn lingered in the financial market.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.32% by 10:52 PM ET (0252 GMT).
South Korea’s KOSPI eased 1.01%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 fell 0.54%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.56%.
China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.09% while the Shenzhen Component edged down 0.19%.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.16% and Nasdaq 100 gained 1.68%. Oil plunged to under $100 a barrel on Tuesday.
Treasuries slipped, leaving the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield just above 2.80%.
Investors are still worried about a recession caused by monetary tightening despite a possible rolling back of some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. A looming energy crisis in Europe amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and threats to company earnings are on investors’ radars.
“Markets are caught between two opposing forces and that’s the place we are going to be in for the next few months,” Kirkoswald Asset Management chief investment officer for long-biased strategies Diana Amoa told Bloomberg.
“We go from trading lower growth to trading high inflation.”
In Asia-Pacific, Shanghai rolled out mass testing for COVID in nine districts after detecting cases the past two days, fueling concerns of another lockdown.
The Reserve Bank of Australia announced on Tuesday an interest rate hike by 50 basis points to 1.35%, in line with Investing.com’s expectations.
Investors now await the minutes from the Fed’s June meeting, due later in the day, which is almost certain to sound hawkish.