Asian Stocks Tumble As Russia-Ukraine War Escalation Triggers Riskoff Mood
Japan's inflation print rose higher than anticipated ahead of the Central Bank meeting next month.
Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region plunged in early trade on Friday as geopolitical tensions worsened with Russia's warning to strike Kyiv with new ballistic missiles, following its attack on the power system in Ukraine.
Equity benchmarks in South Korea fell the most by over 1% during the session's opening. The Nikkei was 255 points, or 0.67%, lower at 38,109, while the S&P ASX 200 was down 49 points, or 0.57%, at 8,451 as of 5:42 a.m.
Japan's inflation print rose higher than anticipated ahead of the Central Bank meeting next month. Japan may also delay a decision on raising taxes to help cover rising defence spending, Bloomberg said. The Japanese currency rose around 0.4% against the US Dollar.
In response to attacks on Russia with Western missiles, President Vladimir Putin threatened to use new ballistic missiles to hit "decision-making centres" in the Ukrainian capital.
“These could be military facilities, defence industry enterprises or decision-making centres in Kyiv,” Putin during a regional security meeting in Kazakhstan’s capital, Bloomberg News reported.
This threat comes after Russia targeted Ukraine’s power system in a new air assault, causing blackouts in some parts of the country. The retaliation is for recent Ukraine's attacks using US-supplied ATACMS and UK-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles inside targets at Russia.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s real fell to a record low due to concerns over a government plan to cut spending. The dollar index was on track to snap its eight-week winning streak, as the index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of 10 leading global currencies, was trading slightly above the 106 mark on Friday.
The US markets were closed on Thursday on account of Thanksgiving. The S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.38% and 0.60%, respectively, on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.31%.
The crude oil prices inched higher amid speculations of OPEC+’s production plans after it delayed a key meeting by four days. The Brent crude was trading 0.62% higher at $73.28 a barrel as of 6:00 a.m. IST, and the West Texas Intermediate was up 0.15% at $68.82.
