Asian Stocks Mixed, U.S. Equities Rise as Earnings Ease Some Gloom

By Zhang Mengying

Investing.com – Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed on Wednesday morning. U.S. equities rose as earnings eased some gloom.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 0.31% by 10:57 PM ET (2:57 AM GMT).

South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.56%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 inched down 0.01%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.43%.

China’s Shanghai Composite inched down 0.06% while the Shenzhen Component was up 0.17%.

U.S. equities rose after upbeat earnings from Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) eased investors’ concerns about the gloomy economic outlook. More than three-quarters of firms that have reported earnings so far either beat or met expectations, which offers some hope to the markets.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 2.80%.

Markets remained edgy ahead of an expected U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike, which aims to bring down soaring inflation.

The Fed’s moves to tame inflation would cement a combined 150 basis points increase over June and July, the steepest hike since the 1980s.

“The Fed hasn’t even gotten to neutral yet,” Janus Henderson Investors global bonds portfolio manager Jason England told Bloomberg. “For them to start easing already or for them to start seeing eases priced in is, I think, a little premature.”

The International Monetary Fund warned the world economy may soon be on the cusp of an outright recession. Monetary tightening, Europe’s energy shortages over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s property sector, and COVID curbs remain the headwinds to the global economic rebound.

“Inflation is hurting companies and the question is whether these policy rate hikes are going to do anything to alleviate the pain,” Quadratic Capital Management founder Nancy Davis told Bloomberg.

U.S. President Joe Biden is due to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this Thursday on tensions over Taiwan.