Global Market Today: Asian stocks drop on inflation concerns, oil gains

Asian stocks declined, tracking moves on Wall Street, as elevated oil prices stoked inflation concerns and technology shares came under renewed pressure.

MSCI’s Asia Pacific index for equities slipped 0.3%, with shares in Japan and South Korea falling, while markets in mainland China return from a holiday. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. fluctuated between gains and losses after the chip bellwether reported record profit but still missed estimates.

Elsewhere, Brent rose 1% to around $101.20 a barrel after a report that the White House asked the Pentagon to draw up strike options against Iran that could be executed before the midterm elections, and as a storm shut some US output.


Read more: US stocks: US market ends lower, off record highs, as Treasury yields climb

Earlier, the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq 100 Index both fell 0.2% on renewed concerns about inflation. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index lost 1.2%. A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar’s strength touched its highest since June in the New York session.

Higher oil prices are complicating the outlook for investors by adding to inflationary pressures just as the Federal Reserve last month increased interest rates for the first time since 2023. Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting showed officials unanimously backed a rate hike, with many supporting the move as insurance against stronger price pressures.

“Another rate hike is probably coming this year because current policy isn’t very restrictive,” said David Russell at TradeStation. “With inflation above target and most measures of economic activity strong, price stability is the Fed’s dominant mandate.”

All 19 Fed officials backed last month’s decision to raise the target range for the benchmark rate by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4%, the first increase since July 2023. The move came as policymakers saw signs of renewed strength in the economy.

Officials also discussed financial conditions, with many noting that even after the rise in longer-term Treasury yields, conditions remained supportive of growth as equities rallied and corporate bond spreads stayed narrow.

In Asia, the yen was steady around 158 per dollar. The Fed minutes showed that US participation in Japan’s late-July intervention to support the yen was carried out by the Treasury Department and did not involve the Fed’s own funds.

Traders were also watching France’s fiscal strains, which threaten to pull the European Central Bank into its sharpest confrontation with markets since the euro-area debt crisis. France’s finance ministry said it isn’t changing its bond-issuance strategy.

Attention is also shifting to the coming earnings season for signs that profit growth can justify elevated valuations as macro risks mount, and whether the artificial-intelligence boom has further to run.

Expectations have been rising, with earnings per share for S&P 500 companies projected to increase more than 24% in the coming reporting season, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.