Inflation fears stalk stocks

A sell-off in global shares has extended to its longest losing streak in two months as surging commodity prices and growing inflationary pressure in the United States prompted bets on earlier interest rate hikes and higher bond yields.

A limited equity market recovery emerged in European early trade, with the continent's shares STOXX 600 index adding 0.4 per cent after Tuesday's slump.

London's FTSE 100 led the way, buoyed by data showing Britain's pandemic-battered economy grew more strongly than expected in March.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slumped 0.9 per cent, having earlier touched its lowest since March 26.

After hitting fresh record highs earlier in the week, MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe was 0.2 per cent down, its third consecutive day of losses, the longest-running streak since March 4.

Investor focus was locked on the US consumer price index report to be released by the US Labor Department at 1230 GMT, with analysts expecting a 3.6 per cent lift in year-on-year prices, boosted by last April's low base.

US Treasury yields remained stuck in a tight range. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries drifted lower to 1.6130 per cent, below the recent peaks of late March levels and far from the 1.9 per cent level at the start of 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Euro zone bond yields held below recent highs touched on Tuesday. Germany's 10-year yield was down 1 basis point to -0.17 per cent, after rising to the highest since March 2020 at -0.152 per cent on Tuesday.

Analysts said a combination of inflation fears and some investors cutting their exposure to overstretched stocks or sectors was behind the recent downturn.

"It's a battle of two narratives: one of reflation and roaring 20s, with fiscal stimulus creating higher levels of growth; and the other is the lower-for-longer idea where ultimately inflation proves hard to generate and interest rates stay at low levels," Kiran Ganesh, head of multi asset at UBS Global Wealth Management in London.

"These two narratives are conflicting and are in investors' minds at the same time."

Japan's Nikkei reversed early gains to shed 1.9 per cent, while Taiwan's benchmark index plunged 6 per cent from all-time highs to levels seen in February on fears it may raise its COVID-19 alert level in coming days, which would lead to closure of shops dealing in non-essential items as infections rise.

E-mini futures for the S&P 500 stumbled 0.2 per cent while futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down 0.5 per cent.

Analysts, however, doubted the broader equities sell-off would extend much further in a world of easy accommodative policy and fiscal largesse.

"Despite the severity of the moves, we sensed limited panic in our client conversations with many using (the) weakness as an opportunity to buy the dip, particularly in the value orientated areas e.g. banks, energy and insurance," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.

The equity rout barely helped drive any safe haven flows into the greenback even as futures pointed to another negative open for Wall Street.

"What is unusual about the last two days is that the equity-market angst did not provide the US dollar with a notable lift," said Alvin T. Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

The dollar hovered near a 2-1/2-month low versus major peers, as traders clung on to bets that the Federal Reserve would remain steadfast in its easy policy settings ahead of the release of the US consumer price index data expected to show a sharp rise in annual US inflation.

The US Federal Reserve expects higher inflation though officials have pointed to transient factors and base effects for the temporary rise.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was broadly flat at 90.211.

The currencies of major natural resource suppliers such as Canada have been buoyant amid rising commodity prices.

The loonie was not far from a 3-1/2-year high of C$1.2078.

The Australian dollar, another proxy for commodity prices, pulled away from a 10-week high struck on Monday to reach $0.7811.

Oil prices were higher, with US crude adding 1 per cent to $65.94 a barrel. Brent crude added 0.9 per cent to $69.20 per barrel.

Copper prices rose and were not far from a record high hit earlier this week, with three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange adding 1.1 per cent to $10,579 a tonne. Spot gold was 0.2 per cent lower at $1,832 an ounce.

In cryptocurrencies, ether hit a fresh record high touched on Monday and was last at $4,315.41. The value of the second-biggest digital token has surged over 5.5 times so far this year.