(Aug 21): Most emerging Asian equities were on pace for a weekly loss on Friday as elevated US Treasury yields and firmer oil prices stoked risk-off sentiment, though a softer dollar drove the South Korean won and Indonesian rupiah to multi-month highs.

A surge in global bond yields, pushing the 30-year US Treasury yield to its highest since 2007 on unease over government finances, drove the selloff.

US Treasury yields resumed climbing on Friday, brushing aside Wednesday's intervention as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's overnight signal that the government might expand its buyback program further.

Compounding the pressure, a stalemate in US-Iran diplomacy sent oil to one-month highs, keeping inflation concerns front and centre.

South Korea's Kospi and Taiwan's benchmark remained set for a weekly slide of close to 2%. They both nudged higher intra-day, up 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4% for the week, leaving it on track for its first weekly decline in five weeks.

The EM currency index pared gains from a record high touched earlier in the session but remained on course for an eighth consecutive week of gains.

The two indices were up 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively, on Friday.

Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone, said the split reflects two readings of the same bond-market move: dollar weakness offers currencies mechanical relief, while equities see the Treasury buyback as "an emergency intervention to stop yields from breaking higher," not a genuine fix.

With the 30-year yield already back up near 5.25%, Wu said high-multiple Asian tech names will stay under pressure until long-end yields fall for good, rather than just being temporarily held down by measures like the buyback.

South Korea's won climbed as much as 1.1% to an 11-month high before trimming gains to 0.7%, while Taiwan's dollar added 0.2%.

Indonesia's rupiah touched 17,790 per dollar at its strongest point of the day — a level not seen since mid-June — before easing to a 0.3% gain. Even so, it remains Asia's worst performer this year, having shed nearly a quarter of its value on transparency worries and MSCI downgrade risk.

Thailand's baht extended gains to rise 0.4%, while local shares climbed 0.6%.

Attention now turns to next week's Jackson Hole gathering, where comments from the Fed chair could offer fresh signals on the path for US rates.  

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja