Pedestrians walk past the Exchange Square complex which houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, March 23, 2021.
Paul Yeung | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks fell on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced more rate hikes after raising rates by 75 basis points as expected, calling talks of a break in the tightening cycle “premature.” “ referred to.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 3.29%, leading to losses in the broader Asia-Pacific trading session. Hang Seng Tech fell 4.14%. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.11% and the Shenzhen Component lost 0.45%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was last down 1.86%. The Kospi fell 0.94% and the Japanese market was closed for a holiday on Thursday. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan fell 2%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 505.44 points, or 1.55%, to 32,147.76, and the S&P 500 lost 2.5% to 3,759.69. The Nasdaq Composite fell 3.36% to 10,524.80.
The indices rose earlier in the session on a line in the Fed statement that said: “The committee will review the cumulative monetary tightening, the lags with which monetary policy is affecting economic activity and inflation, as well as economic and financial take developments into account.”
– CNBC’s Patti Domm and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.