Asia stocks hit one-year high as soft U.S. data quells Fed hike talkThe dollar took a tumble and Asian stocks rose to one-year highs on Wednesday after surprisingly weak U.S. services sector activity put paid to already slim chances of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as early as this month. “When people think there’s no immediate rate hike from the Fed, then Asia and emerging markets are the place to go to, as investors seek yields,” said Toru Nishihama, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research. Comments from several Fed officials in recent weeks had boosted bets on a rate hike in coming months, but investors have had to scale back their expectations since Friday’s weaker-than-expected U.S. payrolls report. San Francisco Fed president John Williams, speaking after the ISM data, also said he expects the Fed will raise rates gradually over the next few years. “Recent hawkish comments from Fed officials were probably intended to warn markets against being too complacent about the chance of a rate hike, rather than to make markets fully price in a rate hike,” Shirota said.

Source: Manila Bulletin September 07, 2016 03:22 UTC