Fitch said that China’s growth should improve during the second half of this year
Asian stock markets gave up early gains to finish mostly lower on Tuesday following a national holiday in the United States. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.27% after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy settings unchanged as expected. The central bank Governor Kuroda said that they are not considering hiking the key rate or tweaking the current monetary easing at this stage.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.11%, and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.9%.
Bucking the trend, the Shanghai Composite in China rose 0.80% after the global rating giant Fitch said earlier in the session that China’s growth should improve during the second half of this year, as policy support in mainland China takes effect.
European equities opened lower on Tuesday as rising US Treasury yields made investors cautious while pushing the greenback higher amid the Fed’s increasingly hawkish tone. The pan-European Stoxx 600 slid over 1% in early trade, with tech stocks leading losses. Later in the day, investors will shift focus to the US corporate earnings, with Goldman Sachs and PNC Financial among the companies reporting their quarterly results today.
Meanwhile, a jump in Treasury yields pushed the dollar north, with the USD index continuing its recovery from two-month lows seen last week. As such, EURUSD is now back below the 1.1400 figure and could threaten the ascending 20-DMA, currently at 1.1350, should the buying pressure surrounding the dollar intensify anytime soon. In a wider picture, the pair is now stuck between the 100- and 20-DMAs, with the 1.1400 level being in the market focus at this point.
