Asia-Pacific markets extended their declines on Wednesday, with Hong Kong and South Korea leading losses after China’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth missed estimates.
The country’s economy grew by 5.2% in the October to December period last year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday, missing expectations of a 5.3% growth forecast by economists polled by Reuters. GDP climbed 5.2% for the whole of 2023.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.67% after the GDP announcement, while China’s CSI 300 index shed 0.95%.
South Korea’s Kospi was also down more than 2%, while the small-cap Kosdaq dipped 2.25%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell for a fourth day, down 0.27%.
In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded, with the index gaining 0.54% and the broad-based Topix up 0.59%%.
Reportedly, China AMC Fund Management Co will temporarily suspend the Nikkei 225 ETF fund trading on Wednesday due to high premiums.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell as bond yields ticked higher and Wall Street pored through the latest batch of fourth-quarter earnings.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield climbed more than 11 basis points to 4.064% after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller indicated in a speech that the central bank could ease monetary policy slower than Wall Street had anticipated.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.62%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.37% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.19%.
— CNBC’s Sarah Min and Alex Harring contributed to this report
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