Equities Gains, Oil Dipped and Bond Selloff Deepened as Markets Adjust to Fed’s Hawkish Tone

Asian stocked largely gained along with U.S. equity futures as a selloff in bonds deepened Tuesday on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s signals hawkish tone on taming down inflation.

The CSI300 closed marginally down by 0.08% while HSI, KOSPI and SET closed climbing higher by 3.15%, 0.89% , 0.24% and 1.28% respectively. The MSCI Asian Board Market Index Ex- Japan dipped by 0.87%.

Futures contracts in the U.S. gained with  S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 higher by 0.39% and 0.37% respectively.

U.S. treasury yields advanced after short-dated rates posted one of the biggest daily climbs of the past decade on Monday.

“For the long term, 2.3% on the 10-year is not such a high figure at all,” Linda Duessel, senior equity strategist at Federated Hermes Inc., said on Bloomberg Television, referring to U.S. Treasuries. “What spooks the market is when you have very quick moves, such as what we’re having now.”

Jerome Powell in his speech on Monday said, if needed Fed is prepared to raise interest rates by half percentage points at the next policy meeting. Earlier Fed raised interest rate by a quarter point last week and signaled six more such this year.

The Fed earlier hiked rate by a quarter-point and signaled six more such moves this year.

Oil retreated gains with Brent trading around $115 a barrel while WTI trading around $111 a barrel. Germany and Hungary are putting a pause on potential embargo on Russian oil, diverging away from the block on putting pressure on Russia after its invasion in Ukraine.