Asian Stocks Down, Despite Better-Than-Expected Chinese Data By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Tuesday morning, despite the S&P5 500’s record close to kick off the first trading day of 2022 in the U.S.

China’s fell 0.64% by 10:09 PM ET (3:09 AM GMT) and the slid 1.09%. showed that the for December was a better-than-expected 50.9.

Separate data showed that property companies saw sales drop in 2021 could lead to further policy easing, which contributed to the drop in Chinese shares.

Hong Kong’s was down 0.46%, following its worst start to the year since 2019 on Monday.

Japan’s rose 1.37%, while South Korea’s was down 0.37%. In Australia, the jumped 1.59%.

The Japanese, Chinese and Australian markets all re-opened after a holiday.

In benchmark U.S. Treasury yields, the yield on the 10-year note topped 1.60%, the worst start to a year since 2009, as investors brace for a slew of U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes throughout the year.

Increasing volatility is also likely as the market kicks off 2022. Some investors expect headwinds from the omicron COVID-19 variant, supply-chain disruptions, and more central banks tightening their monetary policies that drove a third year of double-digit returns for equities.

“We expect 2022 to be far more challenging from an investment perspective,” Bel Air Investment Advisors vice president Heather Wald said in a note.

“Rarely has a market delivered three consecutive years of double-digit returns, as we have seen from 2019 to 2021. With the Fed set to accelerate tightening and a fairly valued stock market, we anticipate more muted returns for the S&P in 2022 but still expect equities to remain attractive versus other liquid asset classes,” the note added.

U.S. data, including December’s job report and the , could justify an earlier-than-expected monetary policy tightening. The Fed minutes will be released on Wednesday, with the jobs report, which includes , due on Friday.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard will discuss the U.S. economy and monetary policy at an event on Thursday, and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will discuss monetary policy on a panel a day later.

Across the Atlantic, European Central Bank executive board member Isabel Schnabel will speak at a panel on Saturday.