{"id":68699,"date":"2024-03-22T18:21:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=68699"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:03:35","slug":"friday-22nd-march-2024-asian-markets-hit-highs-amidst-inflation-surge-and-global-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/friday-22nd-march-2024-asian-markets-hit-highs-amidst-inflation-surge-and-global-optimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday 22nd March 2024: Asian markets hit highs amidst inflation surge and global optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3><br \/><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.15%, Shanghai Composite down 0.85%, Hang Seng down 2.32% ASX down 0.15%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2172.5 (-0.56%), Silver at $24.67 (-1.13%), Brent Oil at $85.23 (-0.62%), WTI Oil at $80.55 (-0.64%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.24, UK 10-year yield at 4.024, Germany 10-year yield at 2.418<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) Federal Funds Rate 5.5% vs 5.5% expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 surged to a new all-time high, briefly surpassing 41,000 on Friday, driven by accelerated inflation in February. The country&#8217;s headline inflation rate rose to 2.8%, up from 2.2% in the previous month, with core inflation, excluding fresh food prices, also climbing to 2.8%. The Bank of Japan expressed confidence in achieving its 2% price stability target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the initial surge, the Nikkei retreated slightly to close just below 41,000, ending with a modest gain of 0.18%. Hong Kong&#8217;s Hang Seng index plunged by 2%, while Mainland China&#8217;s CSI 300 experienced a decline of 1.05%. The Hang Seng Tech index saw a significant drop of 4%, with Li Auto shares plummeting by 10% after slashing its first-quarter deliveries forecast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Australia, the S&amp;P\/ASX 200 slipped by 0.15%, while the Taiwan Weighted Index traded close to flatline levels following the central bank&#8217;s unexpected decision to raise its policy rate. In the United States, all three major indexes reached new highs, extending the rally from Thursday after the Federal Reserve&#8217;s decision to maintain steady rates and uphold its rate cut forecast for 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 269.24 points, or 0.68%, to close at 39,781.37. The S&amp;P 500 advanced by 0.32% to reach 5,241.53, while the Nasdaq Composite edged up by 0.20% to finish at 16,401.84. Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, remarked that investors have faith in the Fed&#8217;s actions, believing that rate cuts are forthcoming, leading to a positive market sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1:00 PM GMT &#8211; USD Fed Chair Powell Speaks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 surged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68700,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68699\/revisions\/68700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}