Asian Shares Retreat On Economic Jitters

Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, although regional losses remained capped by consensus-beating earnings results from tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet. Economic jitters weighed on sentiment after the release of weak U.S. economic data.

Interest-rate worries persisted, with investors focusing on upcoming U.S. GDP data and PCE inflation for additional clues on the Fed’s policy path.

Chinese shares fluctuated before ending little changed on doubts about the strength of the economy recovery in the country.

Sino-U.S. tensions also weighed after a group of nine Republican senators called on the Biden administration to impose sanctions against Chinese cloud companies, citing national security concerns.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finished marginally lower at 3,264.10 ahead of industrial profits data, due out Thursday, and the upcoming May Day ‘Golden Week’ holiday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.7 percent to 19,757.27, reversing an early slide.

Japanese shares ended notably lower and the yen inched up slightly as the BOJ policy meeting loomed.

The Nikkei 225 Index slid 0.7 percent to 28,416.47, retreating from an eight-month high as weak results from First Republic Bank revived concerns about the health of the U.S. banking sector. The broader Topix closed 0.9 percent lower at 2,023.90.

Banks led losses, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial falling around 2 percent each.

Mitsubishi Motors fell 2.6 percent after the automaker announced a one-time charge of about $78 million related to slowing sales at its China unit.

Seoul stocks gave up early gains to finish lower, with the Kospi slipping 0.2 percent to 2,484.83.

Chipmaker SK Hynix rallied 2.2 percent after the company said it expects market circumstances to improve in the second half of this year.

Australian markets ended flat with a negative bias as data showed inflation in the country eased from 33-year highs in the first quarter of the year.

Miners retreated, outweighing gains in the energy sector after an uptick in oil prices. Gold miners surged, with Newcrest gaining 1.7 percent.

Diversified miner Mineral Resources plunged 9.7 percent after reporting weaker than expected production volumes in mining services.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index settled 0.8 percent lower at 11,934.98.

U.S. stocks fell the most in a month overnight and benchmark Treasury yields dropped as soft economic data and disappointing earnings updates from the likes of First Republic and UPS stoked recession fears.

A measure of U.S. consumer confidence hit a nine-month low and the Richmond Fed manufacturing index showed a contraction for a fourth straight month, while new home sales unexpectedly spiked to their highest level in a year in March, separate reports showed.

The Dow lost 1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2 percent and the S&P 500 shed 1.6 percent.

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