Asia markets sink at end of upbeat week, lira battered

Asian markets fell yesterday after a broadly positive week as traders await the latest developments in the China-us trade row, while the Turkish lira briefly dived 12 percent to fresh record lows buffeted by a diplomatic row with Washington.

After last week’s turmoil, the past five days have seen investors a little more positive as they took in stride tit-for-tat threats of tariffs from the world’s top two economies, though the fears of an all-out trade war are keeping everyone on their toes.

However, yesterday Hong Kong fell one percent after a fourday win streak.

Tokyo shed 1.3 percent despite data showing the Japanese economy grew more than expected in the second quarter. The outlook was dimmed by concerns about a trade war with the United States.

Sydney was down 0.3 percent, Singapore shed 1.3 percent and Seoul dropped 0.9 percent. Taipei, Mumbai, Manila and Bangkok also lost ground. However, Shanghai ended the day marginally higher.

The losses followed a broadly negative lead from Wall Street.

With few major catalysts in the trade stand-off, focus is now on the release later in the day of US consumer price index data for July, which will give an idea about price pressures across the country and help guide the Federal Reserve in its interest rate plans.

The central bank is tipped to lift borrowing costs twice more this year, having already hiked two times so far as Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts kick in and the economy continues to hum along.