Nifty futures, Asian indices down on 'Bernanke blues'

Hong Kong: Markets across Asia are this morning afflicted with the ‘Bernanke blues’. The US Fed Chairman gave some of the most downbeat assessment of the US economy, warning of a recession ahead if US Congress doesn’t act promptly. And since he didn’t commit to any monetary stimulus action, markets across Asia are taking it badly and are down at the start.

As at 7.30 am IST, Nifty futures are trading flat, but have been trending down since the morning. That’s pretty much in line with sentiment across the Asia-Pacific region this morning, with most of the indices in the red and sliding even further.

Overnight, Wall Street saw a choppy day of trading, falling steeply at the start on Bernanke’s comments, but then recovering ground on some good corporate results from Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola. The prospect that things are so bad that there will be some form of stimulus sooner or later also propped up sentiment in a perverse sort of way.

Back home, we could be in for a listless start to the day, but with a bearish bias. There aren’t many big triggers to influence investor sentiment decisively one way or another, and corporate results, and the progress of the monsoon could determine the mood of the day.

Overall, we’ll likely see a flat, or a mildly negative start to the trading day.