Asia equities surrendered to the weakness seen on Wall Street that was pressured in late trade post-FOMC Minutes, which, despite being sensed as dovish, noted that most Fed policymakers judged it could be appropriate to start tapering this year. As Delta variant continues to pressure the global reopening, some desks started to revise US growth. Yesterday, Goldman Sachs lowered the US Q3 GDP growth forecast to 5.5% from 8.5%, noting that the shock of the Delta variant on US economic growth and inflation figures is demonstrating to be slightly larger than the desk expected.
On the geopolitical front, reports are noting that North Korea issued a navigational warning for the East Sea as a signal of missile launch preparations. And for Australia, despite the worries and pressure in the AUD recently amid economic slowdown and metals prices dip, the Australian economy surprisingly added 2,200 jobs against an anticipated decline of 43,100. The jobless rate fell 40 bps to 4.6%, and hours worked dropped slightly. AUD against the USD was trading off session lows after the positive print.
