Asian shares slip after decline on Wall Street led by falling tech stocks
TOKYO — Asian stocks fell in early trading on Thursday morning, following declines on Wall Street, as the recent wobbles that have hit global markets continued to haunt investors.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell as much as 2.4% to 34,264.75 in early morning trading. Australia’s S&The P/ASX 200 fell 0.6% to 7,652.70. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.8% to 2,523.52.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% to 16,694.63.
The future for the S&The P 500 fell 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%.
Although Wall Street fell on Wednesday, the decline was not as severe as the manic movements that previously plagued global markets. European markets posted strong gains.
Japanese officials sought to calm concerns about possible interest rate hikes on Wednesday after a rise in the key interest rate added to heavy selling on Monday, when the Nikkei suffered its biggest percentage loss since 1987.
The Japanese yen was relatively stable after large gains against the US dollar, which led investors to dump stocks on Friday and Monday. The US dollar fell to 146.37 Japanese yen from 146.72 yen. The euro was priced at $1.0928, little changed from $1.0927.
Investors are also closely monitoring earnings reports released around the world.
Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp. both reported relatively positive financial results this week. Honda’s shares rose 1 percent in morning trading, while Sony gained 2.2 percent.
Taiwan’s July trade data, due later in the day, was expected to weaken but still showed growth in both exports and imports. The benchmark Taiex fell 2.5% in morning trading.
“Recent export orders data suggests that export strength will remain concentrated in technology-related exports; other categories continued to show mixed performances, but overall there have been signs of a broader recovery across more sectors in recent months,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of Asia Pacific research at ING Economics.
On Wednesday is the S&The P500 fell 0.8% after an earlier 1.7% jump was pared to close at 5,199.50. The Dow fell 0.6% to 38,763.45. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1% to 16,195.81.
The yield on the two-year US Treasury note remained steady at 3.99% on Wednesday, while it was still at 3.99% on Tuesday evening.
Nvidia, one of the most influential companies on Wall Street, swung from a morning gain of 4.4% to a loss of 5.1%, making it the index’s most heavily weighted. Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks have struggled amid concerns their prices have shot up too high amid Wall Street’s frenzy over artificial intelligence technology.
Apple helped limit losses on Wall Street, rising 1.2%. The company recovered some of the losses it had suffered earlier in the week after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said it had cut its stake in the iPhone maker.
On Wall Street, the Fed is expected to cut its key interest rate at its next meeting next month, either by the usual quarter of a percentage point or by an even bigger half a percentage point.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude rose 16 cents to $75.39 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 11 cents to $78.44 a barrel.
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AP Business journalist Stan Choe contributed.