Asia-Pacific stocks were under pressure Monday as traders evaluated the effects of US president-elect Donald Trump’s new trade policy and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks continued to influence the markets.
Stocks in Japan and Australia fell. When Samsung Electronics Co. announced its plan to repurchase its stock, it surged, which sparked South Korea’s benchmark to defy the trend. Following the US election, US futures jumped after the S&P 500 shed 1.3% on Friday, wiping out more than half of its gains.
As investors weigh the possibility that Donald Trump’s tax cuts and tariffs may rekindle inflation in the already strong US economy, a weak start might prolong last week’s worldwide selloff. With the likelihood of a rate decrease next month now viewed as less than a coin toss, expectations that the Fed may suspend its easing cycle in 2025 were also bolstered by a report released Friday on October US retail sales that featured significant upside revisions.
Concerns about an overabundance of supply and declining demand from China, the world’s largest petroleum importer, caused a weekly decline in oil prices. Ukraine’s allies are putting pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskiy to come up with fresh ways to terminate the war with Russia while the US makes a final decision to relax some restrictions on the use of Western-made weaponry to strike specific military targets in Russia. Traders will be watching Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s speech and media briefing later on Monday for clues from the central bank.
Inflation figures for the UK and the eurozone are due, and a wide range of representatives from the respective institutions will also be speaking. These figures will be used to assess the forecast for the policies of the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. The sustainability of AI-driven stock gains may be put to the test by Nvidia’s performance.
