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After a selloff, Japanese bonds rebound after a stock market shaken by geopolitical concerns

After a selloff, Japanese bonds rebound after a stock market shaken by geopolitical concerns
After a selloff, Japanese bonds rebound after a stock market shaken by geopolitical concerns

Asian stocks continued to lose ground on Wednesday. This was largely due to the heightened tensions surrounding U.S. threats of acquiring Greenland in advance of President Donald Trump’s Davos address, while Japanese bonds bounced back sharply after a recent meltdown.

The fear of the "Sell America" trade, which emerged in the wake of last year's "Liberation Day tariff announcements" in April, gripped the markets overnight as Wall Street fell over 2% and the U.S. Dollar suffered its largest fall in more than a month.

This sent investors running to gold. It soared by 2.1%, reaching a record high of $4,865 per ounce.

Mantas vanagas, senior economist at Westpac, said that the'sell America trade' was driving the major market movements overnight. Investors were looking to reduce their exposure to the U.S. as they viewed it as an unreliable ally pursuing self-defeating policies.

Trump has however, redoubled his rhetoric on Greenland. He said that there was "no turning back" from his goal of controlling the island and refused to rule out a forceful takeover. Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Europe also reignited fears of a trade war.

On Thursday, the European Union will convene an emergency summit to discuss this issue. The long-standing U.S./EU alliance is clearly in danger.

The World Economic Forum is in Davos, where Trump will deliver a much-anticipated speech in the evening. This could either calm or exacerbate tensions between Europe and the United States.

The MSCI index for Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan dropped 0.5%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.5% for the fifth consecutive day.

The blue-chip index gained 0.5%, while Chinese shares performed better than the rest of the world.

Wall Street futures are up after the overnight shock. Nasdaq and S&P futures both rose 0.3%.

The EURO STOXX Futures and DAX Futures both fell 0.1%, indicating a muted opening for European bourses.

JAPAN BONDS ATTEMPT RECONSTRUCTION

The global bond markets were still reeling after a brutal selloff. They had been caught in a perfect hurricane of concerns over U.S. exposure and an increase in Japanese government borrowing rates.

The opposition criticized the bond yields in Japan after fears over increased government spending by Prime Minister Sanae Takayichi caused them to reach record highs.

The price of Japan government bonds fell on Wednesday as buyers returned to the market with lower prices. The yields on the 40-year Japanese government bonds?fell by 11 basis points, to 4.1%. They had risen 26 basis points a day before.

Treasury yields in the United States also fell. The benchmark 10-year rate fell 2 bps to 4.2767% after jumping 7 bps to a 5-month high of 4.3133% overnight amid a deterioration in sentiment towards U.S. assets.

Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced on Tuesday that it will sell its holdings of U.S.?Treasuries worth around $100 million by the end this month. It blamed weak U.S. Government finances.

The U.S. dollar held steady at 98.57 versus its major counterparts, after dropping 0.5% overnight, the largest daily drop since early December.

The yen held steady at 158.13 dollars, but the Swiss Franc hit a record of 200.19.

Bank of Japan will meet on Friday. Though no rate hikes are expected, policymakers may signal a tightening of monetary policy as early as April.

The oil prices dropped as geopolitical tensions, and the expected increase in U.S. crude stocks outweighed the temporary suspension of production at two large Kazakh fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude prices fell by 0.9% in March to $59.82 per barrel.

(source: Reuters)