Asian markets were mixed on Thursday following steep losses on Wall Street, as a spike in US Treasury yields led investors to scale back their expectations of interest rate cuts.
With the US presidential election still seen as a close contest less than two weeks away, there was significant uncertainty on trading floors.
However, observers noted that traders were eyeing a potential victory for Donald Trump, which could lead to policies that may stoke inflation once again.
This, combined with a strong run of economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials backing a cautious approach to easing monetary policy, has led to reduced expectations for rate cuts.