By Stella Qiu
SYDNEY, May 20 (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as war-driven inflation fears hammered bonds, while investors awaited earnings from Nvidia to see whether the world’s most valuable company might help markets navigate higher borrowing costs.
The sell-off in global bond markets persisted overnight as investors ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve may need to increase interest rates this year. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit a 16-month high of 4.687% overnight, while the 30-year yield climbed to 5.198%, levels not seen since 2007.
Oil prices slipped a little on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures off 0.2%, but stayed above $110 a barrel at $111.07. The Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed and U.S. President Donald Trump said he might need to strike Iran again a day after he said he was postponing an imminent attack to allow for more negotiations with Tehran.
In Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will host his “old friend” Russian President Vladimir Putin, less than a week after Trump’s high-profile visit.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7% on Wednesday, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.6%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 2%.
Chinese blue-chips slipped 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.7%.
Europe’s pan-region stock futures fell 0.5%. Nasdaq futures were flat while the S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1%.
“At this point of time, it remains my base case that we are seeing a corrective pullback after an absolutely phenomenal rally,” said Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG. “The US yields obviously are creating some rumbles in the market and now attracting a lot of attention.
“Nvidia could come out and absolutely exceed expectations … but I don’t think so. I think the ability for Nvidia to just absolutely shoot the lights out and shock everybody like it has done, I don’t think that’s in its book of tricks anymore.”
The chipmaking giant will announce first quarter earnings after the market close on Wednesday. Expectations, as always, are sky-high. Revenue is projected to increase by almost 80% to nearly $79 billion, according to the median forecast in an LSEG survey of analysts.
Treasuries nursed losses in Asia, with the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes holding steady at 4.6713%, having jumped 21 basis points in the past three sessions. The 30-year yield was flat at 5.1858% after a 17 bps jump from last Thursday.
The dollar stood near a six-week high against its major peers. It was steady at 159.05 yen, having gained for seven straight sessions that unwound most of the intervention-driven gains on April 30 when Japanese authorities stepped into the market to safeguard the yen at the 160 mark.
The euro last bought $1.1594, having touched its lowest level since April 8 overnight. The British pound was at $1.3380, not far from the six-week low it touched earlier this week.
Gold prices slipped 0.4% to $4,463 an ounce, the lowest since the end of March as the U.S. dollar gained.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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