Bloomberg News
Asian stocks edged lower early Thursday after Syria tensions and hawkish statements from the Federal Reserve took the wind out of Wall Street’s sails overnight.
The Nikkei Stock Average NIK, -0.03% edged down 0.1%, led by manufacturing, materials and technology stocks. Fanuc Corp. 6954, -1.72% , a maker of industrial robots, fell 1.7%. The declines followed a 0.6% drop in the S&P 500 after President Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. may launch a missile strike against Syria.
The U.S. dollar JPYUSD, -0.085139% was last trading around ¥106.81, near session lows reached during the past three days after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting last month showed officials had expressed greater confidence that inflation would rise to their 2% target over the coming year.
Analysts said the bullish tone of the Fed minutes showed neither the recent pickup in short-term interbank rates nor trade tensions with China were deterring the central bank from additional rate increases.
“While trade frictions may present downside risk to the economic outlook, these got only a brief mention in the March minutes, and have not affected the Fed’s outlook or policy decisions,” analysts from Standard Chartered wrote.
Australia’s S&P ASX 200 XJO, -0.27% fluctuated between modest gains and losses, and was last down 0.3%, while shares in New Zealand NZ50GR, -0.69% fell 0.4%.
South Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.15% proved the exception in the region, up 0.3%, with Samsung Electronics 005930, +0.57% buoying the index with gains of 0.6%. Korea’s central bank kept rates on hold Thursday.
Elsewhere, the Hong Kong dollar briefly touched the weak end of its band, reaching 7.85 against the U.S. dollar early Thursday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, is compelled to sell U.S. dollars to defend the value of its currency.