Recession fears, oil prices and currencies

SINGAPORE – Shares in the Asia-Pacific region rose on Thursday as investors continued to monitor recession fears.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index It jumped 1.15% in early trade, with Hang Seng Tech up nearly 2%.

The Chinese mainland markets were trading higher. The Shanghai boat rose 0.16% and Shenzhen Component It was 0.64% higher.

The Nikkei 225 In Japan, it rose 0.69%, and Topix rose 0.58%.

South Korea Cosby It advanced 0.64%, and the KOSDAQ index rose 0.42%%.

in Australia , S & P / ASX 200 It was 0.48% higher.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.41%.

In economic data, Singapore is due to release its inflation figures on Thursday.

After Tuesday’s bounce, US stocks were trading lower overnight.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47.12 points, or 0.15%, to 30,483.13 points. The S&P 500 fell 0.13% to 3,759.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.15% to 11,053.08.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Wednesday The central bank is “strongly committed to bringing inflation down again.” Inflation has reached its highest level in 40 years in the United States

“It’s not the intended result at all, but [a recession is] Definitely a possibility, and frankly the events of the last few months around the world have made it more difficult for us to achieve what we want, which is 2% inflation and still a strong job market.” The economy is strong at the moment.

“Recession or fears of a hard landing have taken a stronger grip on most markets over the past 24 hours,” Ray Atrell, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.

He said there were no specific events that drove the market’s moves on Wednesday, and commentators largely pointed to a “deepening of recession fears.”

Oil futures declined in Asian trade. Brent crude futures contractsThe international benchmark fell 2.18 percent to $ 109.30 a barrel. US crude futures contracts It fell 2.32 percent to $103.73 a barrel.

The US dollar indexwhich measures the US currency against a basket of other currencies, was at 104.099.

The Japanese Yen It traded at 135.92 per dollar. It fell to 136 against the dollar earlier this week. The Australian dollar It was at $0.6904 after falling from above $0.702 last week.