Asian stocks follow Wall Street rout, Fed speaks in focus

Risk-off trades extended into Asia this Monday, knocking-off the Asian indices deep in the red, as markets tracked the Wall Street tumble last Friday, following Fed’s Rosengren slightly hawkish comments. Boston Fed President Rosengren backed the case for a gradual tightening this year.

Moreover, sell-off witnessed across the commodities’ space weighs on the resource and energy stocks, adding to the downbeat sentiment around the Asian markets. Both crude benchmarks are down -1.60%, copper hovers near 2-week troughs, while silver plunges almost -2%.

Meanwhile, the Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 drops -1.51% to 16,708. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 slumps -2.23% to 5,220 points.

The Chinese equities trade with moderate gains; with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index declines -1.52%, the CSI300 index sinks -1.60%. While Hong Kong markets slide -2.46% to 23,500 points.