Asian shares slipped and the dollar held firm on Friday as traders edged away from riskier assets amid renewed concerns about COVID-19 and ahead of key U.S. inflation data that could set direction on Federal Reserve rates.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.comShares and risk-friendly currencies had performed well earlier in the week, with MSCI's regional benchmark posting its best day in two months on Tuesday, helped by indications the Omicron strain of the new coronavirus might not be as economically disruptive as first feared.
"Then, as we got towards the end of the week the fact that Europe was much more clearly moving into a sort of lockdown light and cases are going up, and COVID-19 case numbers in the U.S. are starting to ratchet up flipped things a little bit," said Rob Carnell, head of research Asia Pacific at ING. "Also there is a slight sense of 'let's not have too much risk on the table for the weekend'. Of course, there is CPI out in the U.S. - but I think we've all woken up to the fact that there is inflation in the U.S. now," he added.
U.S. consumer price index for November is due later Friday and a Reuters poll of economists expect it to have risen 6.8% year-on-year, overtaking a 6.2% increase in October, which was the fastest gain in 31 years. Any upside surprise will likely be interpreted as a case for a faster Fed taper and sooner interest rate rises.
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