Asian equities slip after overnight losses in Wall St
Japanese stocks are the among the leading losers in Asian trading as equities sentiment remains fragile following the declines seen in Wall St overnight. Investors are appearing to settle on the narrative that global growth will slow further next year and further Fed rate hikes won't help with that matter.
Either way, it's year-end and position covering by large funds will only breed more selling so it's tough to get a grip on how much of this is truly affected by the Fed's decision alone. In any case, you can always look towards the chart for further clues.
And in the case of the Nikkei, the close today sees it fall to fresh 15-month lows and that isn't a healthy indicator as we wrap up the year and look towards the new year (also approaching bear market soon, down 17.5% from October high). It goes to show that equities/risk sentiment is continuing to sour and it sure looks like it could get a lot worse before it gets better.
The declines in equities so far today is not denting yen pairs though as USD/JPY sits at 111.43 currently. As mentioned earlier, thin liquidity conditions are set to prevail so don't read too much into the moves over the next few days. There are also large expiries around 111.50-55 today so that could prove to attract price action for the pair in the coming sessions.
