Asian shares slip on Fed’s hawkish rate-hike outlook

Sydney — Asian shares slipped on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve shifted the outlook on tightening from short and sharp to long and high, putting to rest any thought of a near-term pause.

Investors were initially cheered that the Fed at least opened the door to a slowdown in the pace of hikes after raising interest rates 75 basis points (bps) to 3.75-4.0%, by noting that monetary policy acted with a lag.

But chair Jerome Powell soured the mood by saying it was “very premature” to think about pausing and that the peak for rates would likely be higher than previously expected.

“The Fed is now more comfortable with taking smaller rate increases for a longer period than delivering larger increases now,” said Brian Daingerfield, an analyst at NatWest Markets. “The tightening cycle is officially now a marathon, not a sprint.”

Futures were now split on whether the Fed would move by 50 bps or 75 bps in December, and nudged up the top for rates to 5.0-5.25% likely by May. They also imply little chance of a rate cut until December 2023.

“Powell’s comments reinforced our expectation that the December dot plot will show a higher median projection of the peak funds rate and that the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] will ultimately hike past February next year,” wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs.

“We see the risks to our peak funds-rate forecast of 4.75-5% as tilted to the upside.”

All this was not what the equity markets wanted to hear and Wall Street fell sharply after Powell’s comments. Early Thursday, S&P 500 futures had edged up 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures added 0.2%.

Euro Stoxx 50 futures followed the overnight move and fell 0.8%, while FTSE futures lost 0.6%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 1.5%, with South Korea down 0.6%.

Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a holiday, but futures were trading about 300 points below Wednesday’s cash close.

Chinese blue chips eased 0.7% after a survey of the service sector showed activity contracted due to Covid-19 restrictions with the Caixin PMI dropping to 48.4.

BOE takes the state

Two-year treasury yields popped up to 4.63% as the curve bear flattened, with the spread to 10-year notes near its most inverted since the turn of the century.

Attention now moves to the US ISM survey of services later on Thursday and Friday’s payrolls report, where any upside surprise will likely reinforce the Fed’s hawkish outlook.