Asia’s stock indexes were largely down in afternoon trade on Thursday, following a sell-off in tech stocks overnight on Wall Street.
The Nikkei 225 saw a decline of 0.33 percent , as video game company Nintendo‘s stock recovered slightly from its earlier low but still traded down by around 3.5 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was largely flat, but major tech names such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still saw losses.
Down Under, the ASX 200 slid 1.07 percent, as the telecommunications sector was up by 2.59 percent after Telstra lowered its guidance for fiscal 2019 to account for the release of the corporate plan for Australia’s National Broadband Network. Telstra’s shares jumped 3.15 percent in the hours following the news.
Over in the Greater China region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down by 0.64 percent at midday. On the mainland, the Shanghai composite bucked the overall trend to see gains of 0.17 percent while the Shenzhen composite was largely flat.
MSCI’s index of Asia Pacific shares excluding Japan tumbled 3.08 percent in Asia afternoon trade.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite saw its worst day since Aug. 15 as it fell by 1.2 percent to 7,995.17. The S&P 500 also slid by 0.3 percent to 2,888.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the overall trend stateside by closing 22.51 points higher at 25,974.99.
The sell-off in the Nasdaq and S&P 500 was led by a fall in tech stocks, as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg both testified in front of Congress, addressing issues surrounding online election meddling and abuse on social platforms.
Trade also remains in focus for markets as Canada and the U.S. resumed negotiations on Wednesday regarding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China could also intensify this week, with President Donald Trump reportedly saying over the weekend that he is ready to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as soon as the public comment period ends on Thursday.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 95.094 as of 12:08 p.m. HK/SIN, recovering from its earlier low but still off its high from yesterday.
The Japanese yen strengthened against the dollar at 111.34 as of 12:10 p.m. HK/SIN. At the same time, the Australian dollar lost its earlier gains to trade lower at $0.7179.
Emerging market (EM) currencies remained in focus with the carnage that has continued this week, in particular the Argentine peso and Turkish lira.
“The onslaught of strong USD and sell-off in EM currencies, led by the Argentine Peso (ARS) (and) Turkish Lira (TRY) have paused; with some signs of (a) buy-back,” said Mizuho Bank in a note on Thursday.
“But, this pause should not be mistaken as a turning point because there is no sight of a panacea for the underlying chills about EM (emerging markets) just yet,” it warned.
Oil prices recovered from some of their earlier losses but were still down in around midday during Asian trade. The global benchmark Brent crude futures was slightly lower at $77.23 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid 0.16 percent at $68.61 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Sam Meredith contributed to this report.
