Asian equities decline as moods are shaken by the Taiwan earthquake

Due to protracted profit-taking and a diminished risk appetite caused by the terrible earthquake in Taiwan, the majority of Asian markets fell on Wednesday. There was also uncertainty around the direction of U.S. interest rates.

In the first two trading days of the second quarter, U.S. stock indexes fell from almost all-time highs, giving regional stocks a poor lead-in from Wall Street. In Asian trading, U.S. stock futures remained stable.

However, a major bone of disagreement for Asian markets was worries about the entire impact of the Wednesday morning earthquake that struck the island nation of Taiwan.

The largest earthquake to strike the island since 1999 was seen to have destroyed public infrastructure, knocked out electricity in many residences and interfered with public transportation around the island.

Significant chip manufacturer and index heavyweight TSMC allegedly evacuated employees from certain locations and stopped operations at its local plants.

Along with worries over Taiwan, attitude towards the larger Asian markets was also negatively impacted by mounting doubts about the precise timing of the Federal Reserve's interest rate reductions, particularly in light of the nonfarm payrolls data that is scheduled to be released this Friday.

A degree of profit-taking was prompted by this uncertainty in markets that saw a significant surge in value during the first quarter of 2024. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan dropped 0.5%, moving farther away from record highs reached in March.

Key Events Today:

• Eurozone CPI
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(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)