SINGAPORE : U.S. stock futures bounced as buybacks and earnings beats boosted tech giants in after-hours trade, although Asian shares wallowed at one-month lows on Wednesday, with investors turning nervous on the outlook for the world's two biggest economies.
However, U.S. markets fell sharply overnight and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.4 per cent in early trade as investors took stock of softening U.S. data and fresh regional bank jitters. The Wall Street Journal's"Fed whisperer" Nick Timiraos wrote an article titled"Why the banking mess isn't over," including comments from former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan saying bank issues have a long way to run.
"The fear of contagion and the repeated mantra of isolated incidents has inevitably led to 'shy' and yield seeking deposits seeking to bank with the U.S. Treasury," they said, referring to the broad rally in bonds.