Asia: Markets swing as inflation fear tempers recovery hope

[HONG KONG] Asian markets fluctuated on Monday as the battle between economic optimism and fears about the inflation and possible rate hikes the recovery will fuel continues to play out on trading floors.

The Turkish lira plunged more than 17 per cent at one point in early trade after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked the country's market-friendly central bank chief and replaced him with a former ruling party lawmaker.

After a year-long rally across global indices, investors are struggling to maintain the momentum as government bond yields push ever higher - a sign that borrowing costs will rise in the future.

The sharp rise in US Treasury yields - which go in the opposite direction to prices - is being caused by investors selling the bonds owing to expectations the strong recovery and vast government spending will fire inflation.

The panic comes despite repeated pledges by Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell and other top officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the jump in inflation will likely only be temporary and the bank will do whatever is needed to prevent it getting out of control.

And while vaccine rollouts are picking up in Britain and the United States, investors are growing worried about Europe, where the inoculation programme has stuttered and a hike in new cases forces countries including France and Germany to reimpose lockdowns.

"Clearly, the market is sceptical that the Fed will be able to keep interest rates at current levels for the next three years," Diana Mousina, at AMP Capital Investors, said.

"We think that nominal bond yields can still shoot higher in the short-term towards two percent and above on inflation concerns. Markets are likely to worry that this move is permanent, rather than temporary."

TURKISH LIRA COLLAPSES

After a largely negative lead from Wall Street, Asia struggled.

Tokyo led losses, diving 1.8 per cent with carmakers including Toyota, Honda and Nissan all taking a hit after a fire at one of chipmaker Renesas' biggest plants halted production of key components in their vehicles.

Renesas warned the fire could shut the plant for a month, putting a strain on an already stretched chip market, which has caused a headache for auto firms as well as tech giants.

Hong Kong, Seoul, Manila, Jakarta and Wellington all fell, while Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Taipei rose.

"Markets quickly moved from a risk-on dovish Fed narrative to concerns about vaccines, renewed European lockdowns, tense US-China trade talks, equity rotation out of tech, and falling oil prices," said Axi strategist Stephen Innes.

On forex markets, the Turkish lira was hammered by Mr Erdogan's decision on Friday to sack central bank boss Naci Agbal and replace him with former ruling party lawmaker Sahap Kavcioglu.

The currency fell to as low as 8.47 per US dollar in early trade on Monday, having closed at 7.22 at the end of last week. It later recovered slightly.

While a presidential decree on Friday did not explain why Mr Agbal had been removed, it came just a day after the bank hiked interest rates more than two percentage points to 19 per cent as it looked to fight inflation.

The move by Mr Erdogan has thrown the independence of the bank into question and raised fears of a new bout of financial turbulence in the country.

AFP