{"id":69187,"date":"2025-02-12T18:06:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vni.com\/blog\/?p=69187"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T06:11:00","slug":"wednesday-12th-february-2025-asia-pacific-markets-mixed-as-investors-weigh-tariffs-and-fed-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wednesday-12th-february-2025-asia-pacific-markets-mixed-as-investors-weigh-tariffs-and-fed-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday 12th February 2025: Asia-Pacific Markets Mixed as Investors Weigh Tariffs and Fed Policy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.29%, Shanghai Composite up 0.01%, Hang Seng up 1.56% ASX up 0.6%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2910.35 (-0.73%), Silver at $32.15 (-0.48%), Brent Oil at $76.19 (0.39%), WTI Oil at $73.00 (-0.43%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.4550, UK 10-year yield at 4.506, Germany 10-year yield at 2.427<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(CAD) Building Permits m\/m&nbsp; 11.0% to 1.6% expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday as investors assessed the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on regional economies. Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank\u2019s focus on controlling inflation and emphasized that policymakers were in no rush to lower interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In regional markets, Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 rose 0.5%, while Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 gained 0.23% after resuming trading post-holiday. However, the Topix dipped 0.2%. South Korea\u2019s Kospi climbed 0.31%, whereas the small-cap Kosdaq declined 0.64%. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index surged 1.56%, but mainland China\u2019s CSI 300 slipped 0.13% in volatile trading. India is set to release its January inflation data, with the Nifty 50 opening 0.94% lower and the BSE Sensex falling 0.97%. Investors also await SoftBank Group\u2019s fiscal third-quarter earnings later today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. markets closed mixed overnight. The S&amp;P 500 edged up 0.03% to 6,068.50, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.36% to 19,643.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 123.24 points, or 0.28%, to 44,593.65. Powell\u2019s testimony comes amid political uncertainty, as Trump pushes for tariffs on trading partners, creating uncertainty about the administration\u2019s stance toward the Fed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Powell reaffirmed that the current policy stance, with the benchmark Fed funds rate set between 4.25% and 4.5%, offers flexibility. The Federal Open Market Committee left rates unchanged in its late-January meeting, signaling a cautious approach to monetary policy amid ongoing economic and political uncertainties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>01:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Core CPI m\/m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>01:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD CPI m\/m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>01:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD CPI y\/y<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":71231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis","category-market-analysis","category-recent-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69194,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69187\/revisions\/69194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}