Stocks plunge, dollar slides as Fed's emergency cut spooks investors

March 16, 2020: Asian stock markets and the dollar were roiled on Monday (March 16) after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in an emergency move and its major peers offered cheap U.S. dollars to break a logjam in global lending markets.

The Fed's rate cut combined with the promise of more bond buying pushed U.S. 10-year Treasury yields down sharply to 0.66% , from 0.95% late on Friday (March 13).

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 opened up 0.89 percent at 17,586.08, while the broader Topix gained 0.53 percent at 1,268.39 points.

Hong Kong stock market opened low with the benchmark Hang Seng Index down 2.98 percent at 23317.81 points.

In South Korea, shares fluctuated with the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened up at 20.65 points at 1.17 percent, but was down 3.47 points at 0.20 percent by 0008GMT.

Reuters