BANGKOK — (AP) — Asian stocks fell on Friday as worries about turmoil in the banking sector and the risk of a recession overshadowed Wall Street’s gains.
Benchmarks fell in most major markets, but US futures rose. Crude oil prices fell.
Investors fear more banks will suffer debilitating customer exodus after the second and third largest banks in the U.S. bank failure in history. The confusion what the federal reserve does With interest rates after raising them to market-shaking highs last year.
The concern is that all the turmoil in the banking industry could lead to a sharp setback in small business lending across the country. This could add pressure on the economy and increase the risk of a recession, which many economists already considered probable.
Shares of Asian regional banks fell slightly on Friday, with HSBC Holdings plc down 3.4% in Hong Kong and mid-sized Japanese bank Resona Holdings down 3%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.3% to 27,328.27, while Seoul’s Kospi fell 0.7% to 2,406.92. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.2% to 20,007.19, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.5% to 3,268.89.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% to 6,952.80. Stocks fell in Bangkok and Mumbai, but rose in Taiwan.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% for its third gain in four days and closed at 3,948.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 32,105.25 after an early gain of 481 points evaporated. The Nasdaq Composite held up, rising 1% to 11,787.40 thanks to strength in technology stocks.
Big tech stocks and other high-growth stocks were the strongest on Wall Street. Nvidia was up 2.7% of him and Microsoft was up 2% of him.
Stocks plunged yesterday after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) signaled it may be nearing the end of its rate hikes but is not yet expecting a rate cut this year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also argued that the Fed could continue to raise rates if inflation remained high.
Treasury Secretary Yellen’s comments are still being weighed by the market. Treasury Secretary Yellen said the government was not considering comprehensive protection for all customers of all banks. She said the government will bank all depositors on a case-by-case basis if doing so poses a risk to the wider system.
The implication may be that bank failures could be viewed as such a systemic risk. Both the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures met that criteria. Depositors were promised all their money, even if it exceeded the limit of over $250,000 insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Financial industry stocks are the heaviest in the S&P 500 despite gaining in the morning. First Republic Bank fell 6% after giving up his nearly 10% rise.
Fed Chairman Powell said such concerns were part of the reason why the central bank only hiked rates by a quarter percentage point, not more, on Wednesday. A reduction in lending could act almost like a rate hike on its own, he said.
In overseas markets, London shares fell 0.9% after the Bank of England also fell. increased key rate A quarter of a percentage point. Inventories were mixed across Europe and the rest of Asia.
on Wall Street, coinbase global The cryptocurrency trading platform fell 14.1% after it announced it had been warned by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it could face charges of violating U.S. securities laws.
Yields fell in the U.S. bond market, the most volatile market on Wall Street this month.
Two-year US Treasury yields fell to 3.81% from 3.97% at the end of Wednesday. Earlier this month, it was above 5%.
In other trading on Friday, US benchmark crude fell 15 cents to $69.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. 94 cents off to $69.96 a barrel.
Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil prices, fell 17 cents to $75.33 a barrel.
The dollar fell from 130.83 yen to 130.25 yen. The euro remained unchanged at $1.0833.
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Contributed by Stan Cho, AP Business Writer.
