Asian Stock Market Today

Asian markets are sending mixed signals on Wednesday, August 3 as the Bank of England’s rate hike is the much-anticipated news for the day. Australia All Ordinaries (ASX ) closed almost flat at 7,202.90, down by 13.50 points or 0.19%, while Shanghai Composite lost 0.71%. Nikkei 225 gained 0.53%, Hang Seng rose 0.40% while Nifty 50 went up by 0.26 per cent to close at 17388.15, a 0.25 per cent higher than the previous day’s close.To get more shanghai market news, you can visit shine news official website.

Meanwhile, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan leading up to the US-China tension may not be a concern as of now. US Futures on Wednesday morning before US markets open are trading higher are in green. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) or Dow 30 on August 2 closed at 32,396.17, almost 402.23 points down while other leading indices like S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also closed in the red.
Hang Seng stocks recovered from a meltdown as the US-China tensions remain elevated over Taiwan amid any probable military escalation. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 1.2 per cent on Wednesday.

Also, commercial banks in Hong Kong are expected to hike rates either this month or in September next month. Any increase in rates will benefit depositors while borrowers will have to shell out more on the loans.

Alibaba Group Holding, the e-commerce group is due to release its quarterly earnings on Thursday, with consensus pointing to a 60 per cent slump from a year earlier based on the US accounting standard. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2% while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.1%. The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 133.32 per dollar while the offshore yuan rose 0.3% to 6.7609 per dollar.
I wrote an article back in January that urged investors to sell European shares. The Dax index (DAX) has since dropped by almost 19%, while the S&P500 is down 12.24%. In the article, I also said that Chinese shares could benefit from a flight to safety and the Shanghai index is down only 8.57%.

As we have seen with the energy market, Russia has continued to reduce supply to Germany and that has resulted in real fears for the European economy. One of the country's largest gas firms has warned of rationing this week.

"We cannot rule out that Germany might look at rationing gas as something that might have to be considered," Uniper CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach said.

"We know that the government wants to avoid this as much as possible because that would be a disaster for so many reasons," he added.

Energy prices are still being pressured by Russian supply and that will continue to weigh on European markets heading into the winter. That leaves investment looking for a destination.

At the time of my article, I noted that Barclays expected a rate rise from the ECB in 2023, but they meet again this week, with analysts expecting a blockbuster 75 basis point hike. An aggressive ECB will add to the weight of European shares and increase recession risks.Chinese stocks received a boost recently from a proposed audit agreement between Chinese and U.S. regulators.

The agreement would allow U.S. auditors access to Chinese company finances, which would remove recent fears of Chinese firms being delisted. Under the 2020 Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission threatened over 200 Chinese companies with delisting by 2024 without access to independent audits.They summarized that the agreement, "looks to be little more than window dressing. It may allow Chinese companies to remain on U.S. stock exchanges, but there's no reason to think they'll be rigorously audited."

That may be somewhat pessimistic as the wheels are at least turning on some cooperation.