Asia-Pacific stocks fell on Friday, slumping toward a second weekly loss as investors fretted about the potential for further Federal Reserve tightening and the effect on the U.S. economy.
U.S. short-term Treasury yields held near a one-month high, helping the dollar tick up against major peers, after Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin overnight added to a chorus of hawkish central bank commentary in recent days.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares (.MIAP00000PUS) sank 0.54% and was on course for a 1% weekly decline, after losing 1.16% in the previous week.
Mainland Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) lost 0.41% and the Hang Seng (.HSI) tumbled 1.19%.
China's January factory gate prices fell more than economists expected, suggesting that flashes of domestic demand that had stoked consumer prices after the zero-COVID policy ended are not yet strong enough to rekindle upstream sectors.
Australia's benchmark (.AXJO) slid 0.56% and South Korea's Kospi (.KS11) shed 0.49%.
Japan's Nikkei (.N225) bucked the trend with a 0.5% rise, boosted by some strong earnings reports.
U.S. equity futures were flat, after the S&P 500 sank 0.88% overnight.
"Is inflation calming? That's really the core question for this year," Barkin said in a podcast on the Richmond Fed's website, adding that he felt the decline so far had been "distorted" by some falling goods prices.
Sources: reuters