Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed, taking hot US inflation data in stride

BANGKOK– Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after US shares fell on concerns that what appeared to be a hiccup in the battle to curb inflation could become a worrying trend.

Oil prices moved higher and US futures were flat.

South Korean stocks were little changed after the ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections. The Kospi rose less than 0.1% to 2,706.96.

The results were a huge political blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and all of Yoon’s senior presidential advisers, except those responsible for security issues, submitted their resignations on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% to 39,442.63 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1% lower to 17,118.27.

The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2% to 3,032.01 and the S&The P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 7,813.60.

Bangkok’s SET lost 0.3% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.1%.

On Wednesday the S&P500 fell 0.9% to 5,160.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% to 38,461.51, and the Nasdaq index fell 0.8% to 16,170.36.

Treasury yields rose as bond prices fell, adding to pressure on the stock market after a report showed inflation last month was higher than economists expected. It is the third report in a row to suggest that progress in reducing high inflation may be stalling.

This is painful for shoppers because of the potential for even higher prices in stores. For Wall Street, this raises fears that the Federal Reserve will refrain from making the rate cuts that traders have been craving and betting on.

The Fed has been waiting for more evidence to show that inflation is on a sustained decline toward its 2% target. After an encouraging slowdown last year, there are now fears that inflation will stall after the January, February and March inflation reports were all hotter than expected, along with data on the broader economy.

Prices for everything from bonds to gold fell immediately after the release of inflation figures this morning.

The yield on the 10-year government bond rose to 4.54% from 4.36% late Tuesday and is back to November levels. The two-year yield, which depends more on expectations of Fed action, shot even higher, rising from 4.74% to 4.97%.

Traders have sharply scaled back expectations that the Fed would cut rates in June. At the beginning of the year, they predicted six or more cuts through 2024.

High interest rates undermine inflation by slowing the economy and hurting investment prices. The fear is that interest rates that remain too high for too long could trigger a recession.

Wall Street’s biggest losers Wednesday included real estate investment trusts, utilities and other stocks typically hit hardest by high interest rates.

Real estate shares in the S&The P 500 fell 4.1%, which is by far the largest loss of the eleven sectors that make up the index. That included a 6.1% decline for office owner Boston Properties and a 5.3% decline for Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Higher interest rates could deter the housing sector by making mortgages more expensive. Homebuilder DR Horton fell 6.4%, Lennar fell 5.8% and PulteGroup fell 5.2%.

Major US companies are lining up to report earnings for the first three months of the year, and Delta Air Lines helped kick off reporting season by delivering better-than-expected results.

The airline said it is seeing strong demand for flights around the world, and expects this strength to continue into the spring. But the company also refrained from raising its full-year profit forecast. The stock rose as much as 4% during the morning before swinging to a loss of 2.3%.

In other trading early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude was unchanged at $86.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 2 cents to $90.50 a barrel.

The US dollar fell to 153.10 Japanese yen from 153.17 yen, trading near a 34-year high. The yen has weakened on expectations that the gap between near-zero interest rates in Japan and those in the US will remain wide for the foreseeable future.

The euro fell from $1.0746 to $1.0734.