Asia stocks mixed as profit-taking, tech woes offset catch-up play

Asian markets were mixed on Thursday, with profit-taking after a recent rally offsetting big gains in those where traders were playing catch-up after their midweek break.

Wall Street provided another healthy lead after rising for a fourth day – helping pare January’s steep losses – but the positivity was dealt a blow after the close as Facebook parent company Meta’s sobering earnings fuelled fresh worries about the tech sector.

The gloomy mix of a sharper-than-expected drop in profit, a decrease in users and threats to its ad business followed disappointing results from streaming titan Netflix, indicating the pandemic-era sugar rush enjoyed from people being holed up at home has come to an end.

The weak readings provided a reality check that while the world economy is on the mend and many firms such as Apple are enjoying healthy earnings – despite higher inflation and looming interest rate hikes – the coming year is unlikely to be straightforward.

In Asian trade, Tokyo, Sydney, Manila, Mumbai and Jakarta all fell, having enjoyed a strong week so far. However, Singapore and Seoul were both up around two per cent on their first day after the Lunar New Year break.

Wellington was a standout, enjoying more gains as traders cheered news that New Zealand would begin easing its strict border restrictions this month with an aim to fully reopen by October.

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei were still closed. US futures turned sharply lower with Meta plunging about 20 per cent in after-hours trade.

Meanwhile, traders are also still obsessing over the Federal Reserve’s timetable for hiking interest rates, with speculation rife over how much it will raise them in March and how many more times this year. Several officials have come out in recent days to soothe concerns about a hard and fast approach, though January inflation data released next week will be closely watched for an idea about the central bank’s plans.

Traders are also still obsessing over the Federal Reserve’s timetable for hiking interest rates, with speculation rife over how much it will raise them in March and how many more times this year

Private jobs data on Wednesday did little to provide any clarity, with more than 300,000 jobs lost in the sector – against an expected rise of 180,000 – but officials put that down to the impact of Omicron, which saw millions of people infected during the time of the survey.

Still, National Australia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril said a big miss in Friday’s closely watched official figures could affect the Fed’s planning. “Overall, there is a general sense that this is a temporary setback which arguably could extend into February, making interpretation of the state of the US labour market a difficult task over the near term,” he said in a note. “Forecasts for Friday’s payrolls are now all over the place with many calling for a negative print in January. Depending on the magnitude of the disruption, this can potentially become a solid excuse for the Fed to wait on the sidelines after a first rate hike in March,” he added. “A theme to watch, but for now this is yet another reason to push back on the notion of more than four rate hikes this year.”