Asian Stocks Shaken by Blast in Poland; Dollar Gains

  2 min 16 sec to read
Asian Stocks Shaken by Blast in Poland; Dollar Gains

Agencies

November 16: Asian stocks dropped and the dollar gained on Wednesday after a blast in Poland. According to Reuters, Ukraine and Polish authorities have said that the blast was caused by a Russian-made missile.

The news agency added that worries over a potential ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions spurred a drop of 1 percent in MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.

Australian shares fell 0.4 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index dropped 0.1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 1.1 percent and China's CSI 300 fell 0.4 percent by the midday break. According to Reuters, the struggling property sector weighed on the markets, with China's new home prices falling at their fastest pace in more than seven years in October, weighed down by COVID 19-related curbs and industry-wide problems.

US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, fell 0.2 percent. In early European trade, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures lost 0.9 percent, German DAX futures dipped 1 percent, and FTSE futures fell 0.5 percent.

The safe-haven US dollar pared gains against its major peers but was still mostly higher, led by a 0.63 percent advance versus the yen, added Reuters. Likewise, sterling lost 0.32 percent, while the risk-sensitive Aussie dollar weakened 0.34 percent. The euro was flat.

NATO member Poland has blamed that a Russian-made rocket killed two people in eastern Poland near Ukraine.

According to the BBC, Polish officials said the "Russian-made missile" landed in Przewodow, on the Ukrainian border.

Moscow has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported that NATO allies are preparing to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the strike.

NATO and its allies, including the United States, have said they are investigating the cause of the explosion in Poland on Tuesday.

 

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