China's latest economic support measures buoyed stocks and commodities on Tuesday, though the mood was tempered by policy makers' warnings of higher-for-longer interest rates.
“U.S. equity markets have priced in a soft landing, or a more friendly recession, but actually the risk is for the recession to come in harder than expected,” Cecilia Chan, chief investment officer for APAC at HSBC Asset Management, said on Bloomberg TV. “For developed markets we expect a choppy-waters kind of scenario where it will be more difficult from now on, and we are more conscious of valuations that are on the expensive side.
Earlier, a gauge of Asian equities climbed more than one per cent with the biggest gains in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Asian chip stocks rose after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported better-than-expected sales and their US peers climbed Monday. In the U.K., data showed that wage growth held at a level that BOE Governor Andrew Bailey said is fueling inflation. The data is crucial to shaping the central bank's next decision on rates in August. The pound rose to the highest versus the dollar since April 2022.