A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever, financial markets columnist.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Asian markets are set for a torrid end to the week on Friday as another spike up in U.S. bond yields and the prospect of interest rates being kept higher for longer triggered waves of 'sell' orders across all asset classes on Thursday.

Investors are once again grappling with the prospect of steep borrowing costs following the release of bumper U.S. private sector jobs data. Friday's non-farm payrolls report for June could cement the hawkish outlook for U.S. rates and yields.

The two-year yield hit its highest since 2007, and the 10-year yield climbed back above 4.00%.

The MSCI World share index on Thursday posted its biggest decline since April, while the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index had its biggest fall since February and second biggest this year.

There is a sprinkling of economic data from Asia on Friday including the latest snapshots of South Korean trade and Japanese household spending and consumption. But all eyes will be on U.S. bond markets and China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has arrived in Beijing for a four-day visit during flaring trade tensions between the two economic superpowers. Expectations on both sides for a thaw in icy relations are low.

Yellen tweeted the trip is "an opportunity to communicate and avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding," but that may be all that is achieved. Investors certainly aren't expecting much more.

Investors' gloomy economic and market view of China darkened further after a downbeat Goldman Sachs report on its banks on Wednesday sparked a widespread selloff in the country's Hong Kong-listed banking stocks.

Goldman downgraded some major Chinese banks over government debt concerns, deepening worries over a sector already suffering from a creaking property market and sluggish economic growth.

The Hang Seng Mainland Banks Index (.HSMBI) tumbled 6.4 per cent on Thursday to a new low for the year, its biggest one-day fall since February 2018. It is down almost 10 per cent this week, also on course for its biggest weekly fall in more than five years.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday:

- U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in China

- Japan household spending (May)

- South Korea current account (May)