Technology stocks in Asia-Pacific slip; 10-year U.S. Treasury yield surges

Key Points

• Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Wednesday morning trade.
• Technology stocks in Asia-Pacific declined in Wednesday morning trade, mirroring losses seen among their peers on Wall Street.
• Investors will continue to monitor moves in U.S. Treasurys on Wednesday. The 10-year Treasury rose to its highest level since May 2019 on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE — Technology stocks in Asia-Pacific declined in Wednesday morning trade, mirroring losses seen among their peers on Wall Street following an overnight surge in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield.

Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong dropped in Wednesday morning trade, with Alibaba falling 4.31% and Meituan declining 2.81% while Tencent shed 2.15%. The Hang Seng Tech index traded 3.38% lower.

In Japan, shares of SoftBank Group shed 3.18%. Over in South Korea, Kakao shares declined 2.33% and Naver slipped 2.63% while SK Hynix fell 3%.

Those losses in Asia came after the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lagged overnight on Wall Street, dropping 2.26% to 14,204.17.

The broader Asia-Pacific markets also traded in negative territory on Wednesday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.74%. Mainland Chinese stocks declined as they returned to trade following holidays earlier in the week. The Shanghai composite was down 0.65% while the Shenzhen component shed 0.847%.We are likely not at peak-hawk at the Fed yet.Frances Cheung and Terence WuOCBC Treasury Research

Chinese services sector activity saw a sharp contraction in March, a private survey showed Wednesday. The Caixin services Purchasing Managers’ Index declined to 42.0 in March, well below February’s reading of 50.2 as well as the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. Wednesday’s reading was also the lowest since February 2020.

That data release comes as China continues to battle its worst Covid outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.

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In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 1.89% while the Topix index fell 1.37%. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.84%.

Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia declined 0.73%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.26% lower.

U.S. Treasury watch

Investors will continue to monitor moves in U.S. Treasurys on Wednesday. The 10-year Treasury rose to its highest level since May 2019 on Tuesday, hitting a high of 2.562% before settling at 2.55%.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note last sat at 2.6161%, well above the 2-year Treasury note’s yield of 2.5853%. Yields move inversely to prices.

A topping of the 2-year Treasury yield against the 10-year rate, which happened last week before the recent reversal, has historically been observed ahead of recessions.

The 10-year Treasury yield jumped overnight after comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard suggested an aggressive approach to shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet.

“Brainard peppered her comments on balance sheet reduction with adverbs that added to the hawkish perception. In addition, that the reduction may start in May is earlier than expected,” Frances Cheung and Terence Wu of Singapore’s OCBC Treasury Research wrote in a note.

“We are likely not at peak-hawk at the Fed yet. This dynamic could still extend,” they said.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.608 following a recent jump from below 99.

The Japanese yen traded at 123.98 per dollar, weaker as compared with levels below 123.3 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7571 after a recent drop from above $0.762.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures climbing 0.18% to $106.83 per barrel. U.S. crude futures were slightly higher at $102.03 per barrel.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	27280.2	-507.78	-1.83
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	22175.18	-327.13	-1.45
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	7474.2	-53.7	-0.71
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3275.45	-7.26	-0.22
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2733.39	-25.81	-0.94
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	9215.5	-168.35	-1.79

Source : CNBC