Stock market today: Asian shares slip further as higher US 10-year Treasury yield pressures Wall St

Asian shares tracked futures that traded lower Friday amid U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's remarks about the inflation outlook and pressure on Wall Street from the prospect of a 5 percent yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury for the first after 2007.

Addressing the Economic Club of New York Luncheon Thursday, Powell said that inflation remains too high and the path toward sustainable reduction is uncertain despite a recent notable improvement in the inflation trajectory. After reaching a peak of 7.1 percent in June 2022, the 12-month headline Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation has fallen to an estimated 3.5 percent through September. Core PCE inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy components, is also on a downward trajectory, estimated at 3.7 percent through September. 

Oil prices, however, rose after the Department of Energy floated two offers to purchase crude for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on Thursday. The Biden administration has been taking action to bolster the reserves for the first time after July, a report of the Associated Press said. 

The U.S. action comes amid increasing crude buoyancy from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, “which is definitely bad news for inflation,” the report said quoting Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). He told the news agency that developing countries that import oil and other fuels would be the most affected by higher prices.