Stock Market Update Asia: What Is Affecting Markets Today?
Asian shares are under pressure on Friday morning (07/07) due to declines on Wall Street overnight. These declines were caused by the ADP jobs report, released on Thursday (06/07), that missed estimates as well as by rising tensions surrounding North Korea's ballistic missile tests and a tech sell-off. Meanwhile, global sovereign debt yields rose on expectation that the European Central Bank (ECB) is moving closer toward unwinding its massive monetary stimulus.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.74 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.94 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1 percent.
The ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added 158,000 jobs in June 2017 in the United States, which was below estimates of 185,000 and signals the US labor market is cooling, possibly nearing full employment. All eyes are now on the nonfarm payrolls report, due later today.
If the US job market indeed loses its momentum, then the Federal Reserve is not expected to be too hawkish. Moreover, the latest Fed minutes, released earlier this week, showed policymakers are split on the US inflation outlook and how this outlook may affect the pace of US interest rate hikes.
Meanwhile, the USA is using stronger language in response to the latest ballistic missile test in North Korea. Pyongyang, however, does not seem impressed.
Lastly, after Mario Draghi's hawkish statements last week, the ECB is showing serious signs that it wants to unwind its monetary stimulus. This pushes bond yields higher, while putting downward pressure on equities.
Shortly after the opening of trade, Indonesia's benchmark Jakarta Composite Index is still moving sideways. The Indonesian rupiah is showing more movement. It had depreciated 0.14 percent to IDR 13,411 per US dollar by 09:20 am local Jakarta time (Bloomberg Dollar Index).