SYDNEY : Asian markets got off to a shaky start on Monday as U.S. stock futures took an early skid on rate worries, while a tightening lockdown in Shanghai stoked concerns about global economic growth and possible recession.
There was no let up in China's zero-COVID policy with Shanghai tightening the city-wide COVID lockdown of 25 million residents. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3 per cent, and Japan's Nikkei 1.2 per cent. "In Q1, the annualised monthly change in core CPI was 5.6 per cent," noted analysts at ANZ."That is too high for the Fed and we think the FOMC won't be relaxed about inflation until the core number moderates to around 0.2 per cent m/m on a sustained basis.
The aggressive rate outlook saw the U.S. dollar scale 20-year highs on a basket of majors last week at 104.070, and it was last trading firm at 103.820.