Equities Lower On Middle East Tension, TSMC Earnings, Hawkish Fed

Regional Asian equities are lower today, tech stocks have led losses after TSMC scaled back its outlook for chip market expansion, while hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials weighed on investors’ sentiment. Treasury yields jumped after US weekly jobless claims released Thursday showed that the labor market remains resilient. The Fed's Williams said that there’s no rush to lower rates, and underlined how the next Fed move would be data dependent, while Bostic reiterated he sees just one cut this year. Reported explosions near the City of Isfahan in Central Iran, have caused risk assets to take another move lower, with major regional Asian equities indices now down 1-4%.

• Japanese stocks have gapped lower today, initially driven lower after TSMC earnings caused weakness in the tech sectors and hawkish comments from Fed speaker, while Japan then released inflation data that came in at 2.7% vs 2.8% y/y. The yen has ticked higher as investors move into haven assets on the back of growing tension in the middle east. The Nikkei is down 3.13%, while the Topix is off 2.17%, the Topix banks Index is faring better than the wider market, which could be on the back of Berkshire Hathaway's record bond issuance.
• South Korean equities are down 2.50%, while Taiwan equities are underperforming largely due to size of which TSMC moves the Taiex, with TSMC responsible for about 60% of the yearly gains, the index index is down 3.15%
• Australian equities are lower, although one of the better performing markets today, the ASX 200 is currently down 1.50%, Financials are the worst performing sector while energy is the only sector in the green.
• Elsewhere in SEA, New Zealand Equities are down 0.62%, Indonesian equities are down 1%, Singapore down 0.40%, Philippines down 0.20% while Malaysian equities are up 0.30%