Asia and Arab stock exchanges
In Asia, stocks fell in China and South Korea. Japanese stocks closed Thursday’s trading at their lowest level in more than two months, as investors reacted to expectations of monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan’s decision to maintain its ultra-accommodative monetary policy.
Among the 225 companies on the Nikkei index, the shares of 150 companies declined, 63 rose, while the performance of the shares of 12 companies was unchanged.
In the Arab world, the decline was predominant in all markets operating today, while the Saudi market was closed today on the occasion of the Kingdom’s National Day.
Sima Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Global Investors, said in a report following the Fed’s decision: “The Fed is planning a hard landing – a soft landing is almost out of the question… Times are going to get tougher from here,” according to Bloomberg.
Investor sentiment in the markets took an additional blow from Russia’s escalation of its war in Ukraine and tensions between Beijing and Taiwan.
The Euro was near a 20 year low and the Yuan fell even as China set its reference rate stronger than expected for the 21st day.