Live news: Asia-Pacific shares fall after Powell rate hike comments

China’s embassy in Germany criticized a reported plan to ban Huawei and ZTE from parts of the European country’s 5G network.

Germany’s federal interior ministry said on Tuesday that the government is reviewing the security risks posed by components already installed in the country’s 5G network.

German media also reported that the government is planning to ban some parts made by Chinese telecoms groups Huawei and ZTE, which have played a big role in German communications networks.

“If the reports are true, China . . . expresses its strong dissatisfaction and extreme puzzlement,” the embassy said late Tuesday.

Japan’s current account deficit reached a record high in January, according to finance ministry data released Wednesday morning.

At ¥1.98tn ($14.41bn), Japan’s trade deficit for the month significantly exceeded market forecasts. It was also the country’s biggest ever recorded deficit for a month.

Asia’s second-largest economy is heavily dependent on imports of fuel and raw materials, with officials blaming rising energy costs – as well as weak exports to China during the Lunar New Year holiday – for the record deficit.

Asia-Pacific shares retreated on Wednesday morning as investors dreaded hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.1 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index were 1.3 per cent lower.

Powell warned on Tuesday that the Fed was prepared to return to larger interest rate hikes to fight inflation. His comments sent the yield on two-year US Treasuries above 5 percent for the first time since 2007. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

Jakarta: China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet in the Indonesian capital to discuss the South China Sea, where tensions have risen amid overlapping territorial claims between several ASEAN member states and Beijing.

Earning: Cathay Pacific released earnings as traffic at Hong Kong airport has recovered from its pandemic low, but the number passing through is still well below 2019 levels.

Market: Stocks declined in Japan and futures were lower in Hong Kong. Wall Street shares fell after Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell warned that the central bank could raise interest rates more aggressively if the economy grows too quickly.

Elon Musk said Twitter could return to posting positive cash flow next quarter, as the chief executive seeks to cut costs, woo advertisers and navigate the platform’s technical problems.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference on Tuesday, Musk said cash flow at the company he bought last year for $44 billion would break even in the second quarter, adding that it could turn positive in that period as well.

He said Twitter’s cost was projected to run at about $3bn per year, down from the $4.5bn he said the company would have otherwise spent in 2023.

Read more about Musk’s cost-cutting plans here.

Senate Democrats and Republicans have introduced a bill that would give the administration new powers to ban Chinese apps that pose security threats, including popular video-sharing platform TikTok.

Mark Warner, the Democratic head of the Intelligence Committee, announced the bill on Tuesday as part of an effort to create a more coordinated approach across the government to address threats from countries including China, Russia and Iran.

The RESTRICT Act would require the Commerce Secretary to establish a process to identify threats related to communications and information technology and to design solutions to address them.

Read more about the proposed bill here.

The two-year Treasury yield, which tracks with interest rate expectations, rose above 5 percent for the first time since 2007.

The yield hit a peak of 5.01 percent – up 0.13 percentage points on the day – following comments made Tuesday by Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, who indicated the US central bank may accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes in response. may be ready for. Hotter than expected economic data.

Investors now expect interest rates to peak at 5.6 percent in September, with a further cut likely by December.

Ukraine has denied involvement in last year’s blasts that damaged the Nordstream gas pipelines linking Russia and Western Europe, after media reports in the US and Germany suggested Ukrainian supporters were behind the attacks. Can

“While I enjoy collecting amusing conspiracy theories about Ukraine’s government, I must say: Ukraine has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea accident and no information about ‘pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups’ There is not,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote.

Podolić was reacting to a report by The New York Times that said US officials had reviewed new intelligence suggesting that a “pro-Ukrainian group” had caused water damage to both the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines. was bombed under

Read more about the alleged perpetrators here.