Asia shares drop as Treasury yields hit fresh highs

Asia shares drop as Treasury yields hit fresh highs

Oil prices hit their highest since 2014 amid an outage on a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey and global political tensions, stoking fears of inflation becoming more persistent and propping up the dollar, which hovered near one-week highs.







Reuters









January 19, 2022 / 08:45 AM IST





Asia’s share markets struggled on Wednesday as U.S. Treasury yields hit fresh two-year highs and a global technology stock sell-off unsettled investors worrying about inflation and bracing for tighter U.S. monetary policy.

Oil prices hit their highest since 2014 amid an outage on a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey and global political tensions, stoking fears of inflation becoming more persistent and propping up the dollar, which hovered near one-week highs.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan reflected the sombre tone, trading down 0.1% in mid-morning trade after closing lower for four days straight.

Australia lost half a percent, while Japan’s Nikkei slid 1.8% as technology stocks fell and worries over new curbs on businesses to halt a record surge in coronavirus cases curbed risk appetite.

Shares in Sony Group slumped to their lowest level since late October, losing as much as a tenth of their value