Bird’s-eye view of central Tokyo including Tokyo Tower at sunrise hours.
Vladimir Zakharov | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Wednesday as investors weighed elevated bond yields and renewed geopolitical tensions, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement on Tuesday that he was “an hour away” from deciding to attack Iran, before he was persuaded to postpone the strike for a few days.
Yields on U.S. Treasurys advanced as investors continued to dump bonds on fears inflation is reigniting. The longer-dated 30-year Treasury bond yield was last trading almost 1 basis point lower at 5.174%. It briefly hit 5.197% during the session, marking its highest level since July 2007.
Japan’s super-long government bond yields eased slightly on Wednesday, with the 30-year JGB yield falling over 3 basis points to 4.122% after hitting record highs on Monday.
Meanwhile, shorter-dated Japanese debt continued to come under pressure, with the 5-year JGB yield climbing to a record 2.041%.
State Street’s Masahiko Loo said record-high Japanese government bond yields are feeding into a broader global “duration reset,” though he stressed the move should tighten global financial conditions only gradually rather than trigger systemic stress.
While higher JGB yields could weigh on duration-sensitive assets and raise global borrowing costs, Loo said the repricing remains part of a broader adjustment in bond markets rather than a Japan-specific funding shock. He noted that Japan’s debt market is still largely domestically financed and underpinned by massive household savings buffers.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.29%, while the Topix declined 1.45%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.69%, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 2.23%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.85%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 0.55%, and the mainland’s CSI 300 was down 0.3%.
U.S. stock futures ticked slightly higher. S&P 500 futures added 0.14%, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.25%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55 points, or 0.11%.
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks closed lower with the S&P 500 posting its third straight losing session, as a jump in bond yields threatened the bull market.
The S&P 500 closed down 0.67%, ending at 7,353.61, while the Nasdaq Composite finished 0.84% lower at 25,870.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 322.24 points, or 0.65%, to close at 49,363.88.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Sarah Min and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report
