Asian shares trim weekly losses, dollar steady near 20-year highs

Asian shares trim weekly losses, dollar steady near 20-year highs

Those concerns ultimately overcame hopes on Wall Street that high inflation might be peaking, pushing the S&P 500 close to confirming a bear market on Thursday, at nearly 20% off its January all-time high.







Reuters









May 13, 2022 / 10:12 AM IST





Asian shares trimmed losses on Friday after a volatile session for U.S. equities, while the dollar hovered near 20-year highs as investors continued to digest worries about persistently high inflation and tightening central bank policy.

Those concerns ultimately overcame hopes on Wall Street that high inflation might be peaking, pushing the S&P 500 close to confirming a bear market on Thursday, at nearly 20% off its January all-time high.

In an interview later in the day, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the battle to control inflation would "include some pain". And he repeated his expectation of half-percentage-point interest rate rises at each of the Fed's next two policy meetings, while pledging that "we're prepared to do more".

But after sharp losses a day earlier, Asian shares bounced higher on Friday morning.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.5% from Thursday's 22-month closing low, trimming its