SYDNEY, NSW, Australia -- Shares in China and the Pacific decreased on Friday, while in Japan and South Korea the major indices made ground.
A contraction in China's GDP to 0.40 percent growth for the second quarter unaffected Chinese markets and Australia, as China is Australia's largest export market. It was the worst reading of the last thirty years, stoking fears of a global recession.
Salman Ahmed, global head of macrofinance at Fidelity International, told the Reuters news agency that the recession angle is getting stronger, backed by data showing things are cracking beneath the surface.
We moved quickly from a stagflation set-up to more of a recession-dominated one, and very strong inflation is adding to fears that the Fed will need to do more front-loaded tightening. The Hang Seng fell 453.49 points or 2.19 percent to 20,297 in Hong Kong. The Australian All Ordinaries declined by 50.60 points or 0.74 percent to 6,798. The S&P NZX 50 fell 65.36 points or 0.58 percent to 11,122 across the Tasman in New Zealand. Japan's Nikkei 225 was a shining light among the gloom, with the key index going in the opposite direction, adding 145.08 points or 0.54 percent to 26,788. South Korea's Kospi Composite was up 8.66 points or 0.37 percent to 2,330. There was little movement on foreign exchange markets. The euro held steady at 1.0037. The British pound was traded lightly at 1.1840. The Japanese yen weakened a bit to 138.84. The Swiss franc was a bit firmer at 0.9795.
The Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand dollar were little changed, trading at 1.3097, 0.6745 and 0.6134 respectively.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite went up 3.60 points or 0.02 percent to close at 13,251. The Dow Jones Industrials declined by 142.62 points or 0.46 percent to 30,630. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell by 11.40 points or 0.30 percent to 3,790.