Asia markets set to extend losses after Powell's comments; Japan inflation slows

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Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower Friday, extending losses from Thursday's broad sell-off.

This comes as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation was still too high and would likely require lower economic growth.

While he noted that recent data showed progress toward slowing prices, Powell also added that monetary policy was not yet too tight.

Asia investors will also assess Japan's September inflation data, which came in at 3%, the 18th straight month above the BOJ's 2% target, as well as China's one-year and five-year loan prime rates.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.3% in early trading.

Japan's Nikkei 225 is also set to fall after the inflation reading, with the futures contract in Chicago at 31,235 and its counterpart in Osaka at 31,250 against the index's last close of 31,430.62.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 17,294, pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's close of 17,295.89.

Gold appears 'short-term overstretched' after recent rally, technical analyst says

Investors have taken rallying gold prices as a signal that markets are risk averse in a period of rising bond yields and the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Spot gold was last trading around $1,957.39 per ounce, up roughly 8% from its October lows around $1,819.

However, Fairlead Strategies' Katie Stockton expects that gold is "short-term overstretched" and could pull back next week. She expects the recent move higher is a bounce from its previous lows.

"Gold have really shot up this week," Stockton said. "Everyone's been very quick to say that it's because there's risk off now in the market, but I would disagree with that."

"We have to contextualize it with what happened before this relief rally in gold, right, which was a really sharp downdraft. So, gold is basically right back to where it was in sort of mid to late September," she added. "So we've seen a round trip in the price of gold."

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Pharma stocks Pfizer, Moderna among 26 new S&P 500 lows

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