Asian equities fell on Friday after Wall Street shares declined, weighed down by concerns over stretched artificial intelligence (AI) valuations and signs of a cooling labour market.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.6%, led by declines in Japan, putting the gauge on track for its first drop in three weeks. US equity benchmarks dropped for the second time in three sessions with AI-related stocks such as Nvidia Corp tumbling, while a closely watched volatility gauge spiked.
US equity futures rose 0.1% in Asian trading on Friday, reflecting a week in which stocks have swung between gains and losses. Tesla Inc advanced 1.6% in extended trading after its shareholders approved a US$1 trillion (RM4.17 trillion) compensation package for chief executive officer Elon Musk.
Amid increasing volatility, the MSCI All Country World Index is on track for its first weekly decline in four, as investors who drove the rally on expectations of US Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cuts and AI-fuelled growth now question whether massive capital spending will pay off. Wall Street chief executives have also struck a more cautious tone over a narrowing group of stocks driving the market’s gains.
“The market seems to have continued angst about the valuations of AI stocks,” said Jonestrading’s Dave Lutz, adding that semiconductor stocks were “under decent pressure”.
The sell-off this week — followed by dip buying — came as earnings season winds down and as investors become reliant on private data amid a dearth of economic figures due to the ongoing US government shutdown.
The latest private data release, from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc, showed companies announced 153,074 job cuts last month, almost triple the number during the same month last year and driven by the technology and warehousing sectors.
It’s the most for any October since 2003, when the advent of mobile phones was similarly disruptive, said Andy Challenger, the company’s chief revenue officer.
That weighed on the bond market and money markets are now implying around a 70% chance of a Fed cut next month.
Markets were whipsawed by a number of comments from Fed officials on interest rates, with many focusing on inflation and downplaying the chance of a cut in December. Last week, Fed chair Jerome Powell warned that a rate cut in December isn’t a foregone conclusion.
Fed Cleveland president Beth Hammack said inflation is a bigger risk than job weakness. Her Chicago counterpart Austan Goolsbee told CNBC that a lack of inflation data during the shutdown makes him uneasy about rate cuts. Governor Michael Barr said officials still have work to do on inflation while ensuring the labour market is solid.
Fed St Louis president Alberto Musalem said the central bank must keep downward pressure on inflation, cautioning that interest rates are approaching the level that would no longer provide that pressure.
That weighed on Treasuries, which edged lower in early Asian trading, amid the chorus of warnings from Fed officials. Treasury 10-year yields had their biggest drop in a month in the previous session after data showed the steepest October job cuts in more than two decades.
Elsewhere, a Bloomberg gauge of the dollar was little changed after sliding the most since mid-October. In commodities, oil edged higher on Friday but was set for a second weekly drop, as supply increases around the world heighten concerns about the size of a forming glut. Gold edged up.
Back to stocks, the sudden focus on the financing needs of OpenAI — the maker of ChatGPT — and other companies in the industry came as investors were already on edge following remarks from Wall Street executives about frothy tech valuations.
Their warning fuelled jitters in the market earlier in the week, leading to a 2.1% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index on Tuesday. After recouping some of that loss on Wednesday, the index slid another 1.9% on Thursday. It’s now down almost 4% from its last record on Oct 29, though still up nearly 20% so far this year.
Source: theedgemalaysia