Asian stocks down after Wall St weekly loss on rate fears

BEIJING — Asian stock markets sank Monday after Wall Street ended with a loss for the week amid anxiety about Federal Reserve plans for more interest rate hikes to cool inflation.

Hong Kong’s benchmark fell more than than 3%. Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney also retreated. Oil prices declined.

All the major U.S. stock indexes ended with a weekly loss after a Fed official, James Bullard, rattled investors by suggesting the U.S. central bank’s base lending rate might have to be raised to as much as almost double its already elevated level.

“Bullard dimmed the light on rallies,” said Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank in a report.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 3.02% to 17,448.64 after the territory’s leader, John Lee, tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from an Asia-Pacific meeting in Bangkok.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7% to 3,074.26 and the Nikkei 225 in…