Asian markets are in the red following Wall’s negative pace

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region fell on Tuesday, following a negative move by Wall Street, which on Monday night ended its worst session since June amid heightened interest rate hike concerns.

Investor interest is focused on the message Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will send Friday in his speech at the central bank’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Optimism that the U.S. central bank will take a less hawkish stance by pushing ahead with smaller interest rate hikes in coming months has dissipated after hawkish statements from several Fed officials in recent days, pointing to the need to tame high inflation.

Analysts expect the Fed chairman to reiterate at the end of the week that the bank’s top priority is to return inflation to the official 2% target, even if that means risking the economy slipping into recession.

Back in Asia, the China’s central bank called on the biggest state-owned banks to increase lending to support the world’s second-largest economy, which has suffered a fresh blow following lockdowns earlier this year to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

At a meeting chaired by central bank governor Yi Gang, China’s central bank called on state-owned banks to “step forward” and help stabilize the Chinese economy by boosting credit to small businesses, green industries and technology innovation.

In this climate, at Hong Kong the Hang Seng is down 0.27%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite is almost unchanged and Shenzhen loses 0.23%.

In Japan the Nikkei 225 slips 1.25% and the Topix loses more than 1%. At South Koreathe Kospi is at -0.75% and the S&P/ASX 200 at Australia decreases by 0.49.

Sta macro of the day, Singapore’s consumer price index rose at its fastest pace in 14 years in July, mainly due to higher private transport and housing costs, as well as higher structural inflation. Inflation stood at 7% in July compared to a year earlier, according to the statistics office.