HONG KONG : Asian shares fell on Tuesday, weighed down by the prospect of further monetary policy tightening by central banks, China's renewed COVID outbreak and Europe’s energy shortage, which also left the euro a whisker from parity with the safe haven dollar.
“Risk-off sentiment is dominating global markets,” said Yuting Shao, macro strategist at State Street Global Markets. The focus for this week will be macro data including the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. on Wednesday, and comments from Federal Reserve Officials as investors look for clues for the outcome of the Fed's upcoming policy meeting before officials enter the pre-meet blackout period.
Additionally, the surging cost of energy in Europe is a major fear as the biggest single pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to Germany entered annual maintenance, with flows expected to stop for 10 days.