Asian Markets Mixed After Powell Speech

By Alex Ho

Investing.com – Asian markets were mixed in morning trade on Wednesday as investors digested the latest views from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

China’s slipped 0.1% by 10:01 PM ET (02:01 GMT). The gained 0.6%.

Hong Kong’s also rose 0.5%.

Japan’s traded 0.6% higher after returning from a holiday. Softbank Group Corp. (T:)’s stock skyrocketed as much as 12% after a U.S. district judge approved a merger between Sprint Corp (NYSE:)and T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:). SoftBank is a major shareholder of Sprint.

South Korea’s edged down 0.2% after government data today showed the country’s rose for a fifth month in January.

The jobless rate climbed to 4% during the month, increasing from a revised 3.7% in December, government data showed Wednesday. Economists had forecast a rate of 3.8%.

Down under, Australia’s advanced 0.5%.

Overnight, Powellsaid in remarks before U.S. lawmakers that the fed is closely monitoring fallout from the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China.

“In particular, we are closely monitoring the emergence of the coronavirus, which could lead to disruptions in China that spill over to the rest of the global economy,” he said.

However, Powell stopped short of saying the disease had changed the central bank baseline outlook for the U.S. economy.

“The FOMC believes that the current stance of monetary policy will support continued economic growth, a strong labor market and inflation returning to the committee’s symmetric 2% objective,” Powell said. “As long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with this outlook, the current stance of monetary policy will likely remain appropriate.”

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.