Asian shares decline after Fed chief’s comments on inflation

Asian shares mostly fell Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated increases in interest rates must be faster to fight inflation.

Major indexes cascaded downward in Asia. Japan’s consumer price index data showed an increase for the seventh consecutive month, although the results were within market expectations, said AP.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 1.6% in afternoon trading to 27,106.56. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.6% to 7,473.30. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.7% to 2,707.96.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.2% to 20,638.33, while the Shanghai Composite recouped earlier losses to edge up 0.4% to 3,091.79.

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki made comments seen as a slightly more forceful pushback against “sudden movements” in exchange rates after meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of G-20 finance ministers’ meetings.

The U.S. dollar fell to 127.91 Japanese yen early Friday from 128.36 yen. The euro cost $1.0850, inching up from $1.0840.

An intervention, particularly from the U.S., may be coming, said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

But the main cause of the dollar’s surge against the yen and other currencies — a growing gap between interest rates in Japan and some other Asian countries and rising U.S. interest rates — is unlikely to abate.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.37 to $102.42 a barrel. It rose 1.6% on Thursday and is up roughly 40% for the year.

That has made gasoline more expensive, which cuts deeper into consumers’ wallets. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $1.39 to $106.94 a barrel.

AHN