Jun 14, 2022 02:46AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
Asian shares fell sharply on Tuesday, with the dollar as a safe haven near a two-decade high, after Wall Street entered a strengthening bear market amid fears that aggressive US interest rate hikes could push the world's biggest economy into recession.
In volatile trading, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.45%, recovering some of its earlier losses.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed down 3.55%, while Japan's Nikkei stock index fell 1.32 percent, after earlier falling as much as 2%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index pared earlier losses to rise 0.26, after trading in negative territory for most of the day. China's CSI300 index reversed some of its losses, falling 0.23%.
In the United States, expectations for aggressive interest rate hikes increased after inflation rose by a larger-than-expected 8.6% in the year to May.
Fears of a US recession caused the S&P 500 to drop 3.88% overnight, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.68%.
The benchmark S&P 500 index is more than 20% below its recent record closing high, confirming a bear market.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.3466% from Monday's U.S. close of 3.371%.
The yield on two-year Treasury notes, which rose on traders' expectations of higher Fed rates, reached 3.3804% from the US close of 3.281%.
In the currency markets, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, stood at 104.98 points, just below the two-year high of 105.29 reached on Monday.
Against the Japanese yen, the US currency stood at 134.59 points, just below its recent high of 135.17.
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