Asia Shares Decline Following Hawkish Fed Comments

Asia Shares Decline Following Hawkish Fed Comments

Asian equity markets declined on Friday following hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official.

Speaking in a televised interview in the U.S. overnight, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested interest rates could rise sooner rather than later, leading Wall Street shares to end in the red overnight.

"Given Janet Yellen's last comments highlighted 'noise' in the inflation reading, these comments [from Bullard] have some significance. In fact, most of the Fed comments this week have been quite hawkish and perhaps this resulted in the subdued performance in equities," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in a note.

Also weighing on sentiment was data showing that U.S. consumer spending rose less than expected in May, which led many economists to pare back growth forecasts for the second quarter.

Wall Street Flat After a Six Day Bullish Streak

Wall Street Flat After a Six Day Bullish Streak

(Reuters) - The S&P was coming off its longest streak of advances since mid-April, and both it and the Dow had closed at records on Friday. While Wall Street's uptrend is still viewed as intact, investors are looking for catalysts to deliver more robust gains, and recent economic data has been mixed.

U.S. stocks ended a quiet session on Monday essentially unchanged as investors found few reasons to keep buying following a six-day rally in the S&P 500, though merger activity lifted energy shares.

"Right now we're digesting last week's gains and keeping an eye on all the economic data that's coming out this week," said Leo Grohowski, who oversees more than $184 billion in client assets as chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in New York.