TEMPO.CO, Hong Kong - Asian stock markets were mostly lower Friday, Dec. 15, as uncertainty about the progress of a sweeping U.S. tax revamps outweighed an optimistic Japanese economic survey.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.9 percent to 22,498.85 while South Korea's Kospi climbed 0.4 percent to 2,478.37. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1 percent to 28,887.09 and the Shanghai Composite in mainland China lost 0.6 percent to 3,272.00. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 sank 0.2 percent to 5,998.30.
Corporate sentiment in Asia's second-biggest is at an 11-year high, according to a quarterly survey. The Bank of Japan's "tankan" business outlook based on a poll of more than 10,000 companies posted its strongest reading since the end of 2006, in the latest sign that the economy is picking up momentum.
President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion U.S. tax overhaul was teetering on a knife-edge in the Senate, complicating Republican leaders' goal of pushing it through Congress next week and unsettling investor confidence. Senator Marco Rubio vowed to vote against the bill, which gives generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy, unless child tax credits are expanded. The bill's original version was approved by only 51-49, with Rubio's support.
"A sustained slide into the end of the week may be the case as the tax reform jitters induced a risk-off mood for markets in the region this morning," said Jingyi Pan, strategist at IG Markets. "Notably, we have seen Japan's latest fourth quarter Tankan numbers adding to the set of positive indicators from the country, though little reaction had been seen on the Nikkei 225."
Markets were digesting the impact of a raft of decisions by major global central banks over the previous day. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate for the third time this year as anticipated and indicated three more hikes are in store next year. Policymakers in China and Hong Kong followed suit with their own increases while the European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept their main rates on hold, as expected.
Major U.S. benchmarks ended lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.4 percent to close at 2,652.01. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.3 percent to 24,508.66. The Nasdaq shed 0.3 percent to 6,856.53.
AP
