Asia stocks weaken on the patient approach to rate cuts
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Several key Asian share benchmarks fell on Thursday as markets digested the implications of policymakers in major economies preferring to take patient approach to monetary easing amid sticky inflation. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.57%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was one of the biggest decliners, slumping 0.8%, also hurt by a pullback in some commodity prices. Geopolitical tensions also kept investors nervous as China's military started two days of "punishment" drills held in five areas around Taiwan just days after new Taiwan President Lai Ching-te took office. But Taiwan's stock market was not too fussed and was last up 0.3%. More hawkish-than-expected minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, a hot UK inflation print and a sobering assessment of New Zealand's inflation problems from the country's central bank have caused investors to pare th...