Asian equities could trade lower amid defensive price action on Wall Street, where fresh hawkish central banks repricing pressured equities globally, and in the US, the S&P500 retreated below the psychologically key 4,000 level. In the equity space in Asia, risk-taking could remain out of the table. In the US trade yesterday, the China Dragon index lost a further 2.90%, returning to low January levels. Higher yields, a global economic slowdown and the possibility of increased competition in the technology sector among China companies weighed on local trade sentiment.
Traders will watch the wires closely as participants await updates ahead of China’s March National People’s Congress meeting, which will set out key economic goals for 2023. For the session ahead, the focus turns to the FOMC minutes, in which hawkish positioning is clearly the major trade into the meeting. This release can be a non-event as technical play could cause a mixed price action or an unwinding after the release, so traders should be careful when digesting the data, where the attention will be on how to access the Fed’s terminal rate in the coming months.
