FILE PHOTO: A passerby walks past an electric monitor displaying recent movements of various stock prices outside a bank in TokyoSINGAPORE - Asian shares retreated on Friday as hawkish comments from some Federal Reserve officials and escalating geopolitical tensions put a dent in risk sentiment, while traders were also cautious ahead of U.S. jobs data due later in the day.
Israel had on Thursday braced for a possible retaliatory attack after its suspected killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would harm "whoever harms us or plans to harm us".In a later call with Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to condition support for Israel's offensive in Gaza on it taking steps to protect aid workers and civilians.
A slew of solid U.S. economic data out this week has stoked doubts about the pace and scale of Fed easing. A cooling U.S. services sector and comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell this week, however, reinforced the view that rate cuts were likely to commence at some point this year.Some other Fed officials have taken a more conservative view on the amount of easing required in light of a still-resilient U.S.
"They said various things, but the consensus appears to be that Fed policy direction is highly data-dependent at this stage, and it needs to be more confident of further disinflation before cutting rates," said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
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