Asian markets sank into negative territory Thursday, dragged down by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s sobering outlook on a post-pandemic recovery the day before.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index finished a full 1% lower. The S&P/ASX index was down 0.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged 3.6%, and the TSEC index in Taiwan dropped 3.2%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was trading 1.8% lower in late afternoon trading, while Shanghai’s Composite index was down 1.3% and Mumbai’s Sensex was down just over 1%.
In minutes of last month’s meeting of the U.S. central bank, released Wednesday, several members of the Reserve said the COVID-19 pandemic “would continue to weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term and was posing considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.”
The Fed’s remarks caused a shockwave on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq downward.
In commodities trading Thursday, gold was selling at $1,951.70, down 0.9.% U.S. crude oil was selling at $42.57 per barrel, down 0.8%, and Brent crude oil was selling at $45.02 per barrel, down 0.8%.
All three U.S. indices were trending negatively in futures trading.