Asian Stock Market: On the back foot as Omicron, China sour sentiment

• Asian equities track Wall Street losses amid risk-off mood during a sluggish session.
• Virus fears spread as UK reports record covid infections, Queensland tightens mask mandate.
• China dislikes US efforts to ban Beijing-based entities over Xinjiang-related issues.
• BOJ announced tapering, keeping rates unchanged during the last battle of central bankers.

Asia-Pacific shares print losses during early Friday as central bankers’ rush towards scaling back the easy money policies join the Omicron fears and geopolitical tensions amid a session. That said, the MSCI’s index of shares Asia ex-Japan drops around 1.0% by the press time.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 prints 1.72% intraday loss as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to retrace the pandemic stimulus upon reaching March 2022 deadline.

Elsewhere, Australia’s 80% vaccination target failed to keep Aussie investors hopeful amid a jump in covid cases that led to recall of the tougher activity restrictions in Queensland. On the other hand, New Zealand’s NZX 50 dropped 1.05% at the latest, tracking losses from China.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s mentioning of the Aussie-China tussles and Beijing’s dislike for the US actions against Chinese entities over Xinjiang-related issues, which are still unconfirmed, weigh on stocks from the dragon nation.  The same drowns shares of linked economies like Hong Kong, Indonesia and India.

Also portraying the geopolitical tussles were chatters surrounding Brexit, a halt in US-Iran nuclear talks and the European union’s push for Russia's sanctions over Ukraine.

On a broad front, US Treasury yields remain pressured around 1.416%, down for the second consecutive day, whereas the S&P 500 Futures decline 0.16% by the press time.

Moving on, a light calendar and already-out plays of the major central banks highlight risk catalysts as the main drivers, which in turn hint at a quiet end to the busy week.