The Federal Reserve officials said that investors should rethink their bullish reaction to central bank commentary over the past week and prompted a decline in Asia's stock market.
Equity futures for benchmarks in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong fell. The S&P 500 declined 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 1.8%. Australian and New Zealand government bond yields fell to a lower level after a rally in Treasuries that pushed benchmark 10 year yields down six basis points to 3.6%. An index of the dollar was strengthened.
The knock to risk sentiment was reinforced by comments made by four Fed officials who spoke at separate events Wednesday and reinforced a shared message: The fight against inflation is not yet won.
Prior Fed projections that rates would go up to 5.1% are accurate, according to John Williams, the Fed Bank of New York President. After the comments, traders increased their forecasts for rates to peak. Some options traders are betting that the Fed's benchmark will reach 6%.
The tech stocks hit as investors worried that Bard's new artificial intelligence chatbot could yield inaccurate responses, despite a 7.7% drop for Alphabet Inc. shares. After fourth quarter earnings, Walt Disney Co. shares surged in after-hours trading. The company has slashed 7,000 jobs as part of a $5.5 billion cost-cutting plan.
The price of oil went up for a third day, while the price of gold went up for a third consecutive session.
After a selloff that erased billions of dollars from the value of its main equities gauge in the wake of two devastating earthquakes, Turkey s stock exchange suspended trading for the first time in 24 years. On February 15, trading in Turkish equities, futures and option contracts will resume.
Some of the main moves in markets as of 7: 43 a.m. Tokyo time:
The story was produced with the help of Bloomberg Automation.
None of the skies look gloomy for Big Tech's Cloud Ambitions.