This content was published on <\/p>\n
July 25, 2025 – 05:19\n<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) \u2014 Asian stocks slipped Friday, breaking their longest winning streak since January, as uncertainty over interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve curbed risk appetite.<\/p>\n
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 0.8%, with losses in Hong Kong and Japan, where the Topix index retreated from its record high closing Thursday. The dollar edged up 0.2% for a second day while Treasuries were flat after two days of declines. Gold dropped for a third consecutive day.<\/p>\n
Strong jobs data Thursday weakened expectations for imminent cuts by the Fed ahead of the central bank\u2019s meeting next week. Traders slightly pared bets on easing, projecting less than two reductions this year, after jobless claims fell for a sixth straight week. Last week, Fed Governor Christopher Waller had said policymakers should lower rates this month to support a labor market that is showing signs of weakness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still few signs of major cracks in the labor market,\u201d said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. \u201cAnd if that picture remains intact, the Fed has one less reason to cut interest rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trading desks at firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citadel Securities are telling clients to buy cheap hedges against potential losses in US stocks as a slew of risks loom over the market\u2019s record advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Major indexes have soared as the US inks trade deals amid a solid earnings season. Wall Street\u2019s so-called fear gauge hasn\u2019t been this low since February, and the S&P 500 Index has rallied 28% since April 8. The S&P 500 inched to a new record Thursday \u2013 its 10th in 19 days \u2013 on tech gains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That backdrop is making it cheap to hedge against a market slump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are nervous, the market is making it very easy to rent hedges,\u201d Goldman\u2019s trading desk wrote in a note to clients on Monday.<\/p>\n
Markets Live Strategist Garfield Reynolds says:<\/p>\n
Risk assets look to be getting more complacent about the potential damage from tariffs, despite clear signs from fixed-income markets that the US is facing the potential for stagflation. Investors are noticeably more concerned about inflation now than they were a year ago, with 5-year CPI swaps sitting at 2.68%, up from 2.39% last July.<\/p>\n
Yield premiums on Asian investment-grade dollar bonds dropped as much as 1 basis point Friday to hit a new record low, according to a credit trader. Dollar-denominated credit in the region is joining a wider rally in risk assets spurred by easing trade tensions and strong corporate fundamentals.<\/p>\n
Treasuries fell Thursday as resilience in the US labor market and interest-rate swaps showed traders slightly pared bets on Fed rate cuts. They are now pricing in 42 basis points of reductions by the end of the year, with the first full cut coming by the October meeting.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said firing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell was not \u201cnecessary,\u201d after touring the central bank\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Trump dialing back the urgency to replace Powell, markets now see a greater chance that the Fed Chair will maintain a hawkish tone at the upcoming meeting,\u201d said Hebe Chen, an analyst at Vantage Markets in Sydney. \u201cThe likelihood of faster easing has faded as both political dynamics and economic indicators reinforce a more cautious Fed stance.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Japan, the cost of living in Tokyo cooled for a second month on the back of some temporary factors even as food inflation stayed hot. Equity benchmarks in Tokyo retreated as some investors took profit after stocks soared for two days since the country struck a trade deal with the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are taking profits ahead of a weekend after big gains,\u201d said Masayuki Doshida, senior market analyst at Rakuten Economic Research Institute. \u201cTo rise further from here, we would need pretty strong signs that companies are bullish about their earnings.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, the stock market dipped 0.6% at the open after the country\u2019s army said clashes with Cambodia continued for a second day. Thailand\u2019s F-16 fighter jets struck military sites in neighboring Cambodia as a dispute between the nations extended.<\/p>\n
Some of the main moves in markets:<\/p>\n
Stocks<\/p>\n
S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% as of 12:08 p.m. Tokyo timeJapan\u2019s Topix fell 0.6%Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 fell 0.4%Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 1.1%The Shanghai Composite fell 0.5%Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed<\/p>\n
Currencies<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1737The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 147.40 per dollarThe offshore yuan fell 0.1% to 7.1628 per dollar<\/p>\n
Cryptocurrencies<\/p>\n
Bitcoin fell 2% to $116,432.26Ether fell 2.9% to $3,629.88<\/p>\n
Bonds<\/p>\n
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.39%Japan\u2019s 10-year yield was unchanged at 1.590%Australia\u2019s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 4.35%<\/p>\n
Commodities<\/p>\n
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $66.32 a barrelSpot gold fell 0.2% to $3,361.35 an ounce<\/p>\n
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.<\/p>\n
\u2013With assistance from Hideyuki Sano, Winnie Hsu, Harry Suhartono and Richard Henderson.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This content was published on July 25, 2025 – 05:19 (Bloomberg) \u2014 Asian stocks slipped Friday, breaking their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[456,84,10180,1868,467,3356,10181,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-21916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-bonds","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-general","11":"tag-currency-values","12":"tag-markets","13":"tag-stocks","14":"tag-ticker","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}