INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
And at some point, it just gets to be too much -- strategists from Goldman Sachs Group Inc
States and China, a Fed rate hike, the inconclusive Singapore summit between Trump and Kim, and even a series of hacks at South Korean
crypto exchanges buffeting digital currencies.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of stocks resumed its slide Thursday, extending a string of
facing some of the key markets in the region as investors and analysts inch closer to waving the white flag on 2018.
Asia PacificGoldman
Sachs is starting to back off its long-time bullish call on Asian stocks, paring its 12-month target for the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding
Japan index Thursday to 625 from 640.
United States -China trade tensions have escalated against an unfavorable macro backdrop, with global
growth slowing amid tighter United States monetary policy and a strengthening dollar, strategists led by Timothy Moe wrote in a report
levels.
Meanwhile, strategists at UBS Group AG see Asian stock markets pricing in a one-in-five chance of a more serious trade war causing
Hong Kong stocks any time soon either, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley, who slashed their 12-month target for the Hang Seng Index
by about 10 percent this week
in a note Wednesday.
Hong Kong is especially vulnerable to volatility in the United States and China given that its currency is pegged to
the dollar and therefore tied to United States monetary policy, while many of its companies depend on China for their earnings.
ChinaThe
outlook is no better in China, where the Morgan Stanley strategists now forecast the CSI 300 Index to fall into a bear market that will last
Alongside the standard emerging-market and trade-war pessimism, deteriorating liquidity conditions in China and a weaker yuan will also
weigh on stocks, they said.
CICC, meanwhile, slashed its year-end estimate for the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index to 14,000 from 16,000
as company multiples are unlikely to expand as much as previously thought due to tighter liquidity conditions both at home and
more selling in Malaysia, with stocks plunging for a ninth straight day.
Investors adjusting to a new prime minister seeking to shore up the
investment-banking arm of Maybank said at its Invest Asia U.K
