Asia markets decline, suppliers follow Apple downward

FAN Editor

Asia Pacific stocks mostly declined on Tuesday amid dampened expectations on the Fed cutting rates this month.

Mainland China shares continued to fall after losses on Monday. The Shanghai composite edged down 0.16% in early trade, while the Shenzhen component declined 0.22%. The Shenzhen composite shed 0.33%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index pared some losses to edge down 0.17%. The city’s leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the controversial extradition bill that led to widespread anger and massive protests in the Asian financial hub “is dead.”

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 0.28%, while the Kospi in South Korea was near flat. Tensions between those two countries looked set to continue with Japan’s industry minister on Tuesday saying that Japan was “not thinking at all” of withdrawing restrictions on Japanese high-tech exports to South Korea.

Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.33%. Overall, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.31%.

Asia-Pacific Market Indexes Chart

Meanwhile, investors are keeping an eye on testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell due Wednesday. It follows a stronger-than-expected jobs report in the U.S. that raised questions about whether the Fed will cut interest rates.

“The fate of stocks will be closely linked to rates pricing with stocks having rallied strongly on aggressive Fed rate cut expectations. US earnings season is also a focus, with the season kicking off next week,” said Tapas Strickland, director of economics and markets at the National Australia Bank.

“Under focus will be whether trade tensions are weighing further on profit growth,” he said, adding there may already be headwinds as he referred to sharply falling Apple iPhone sales in India. 

Apple shares and suppliers fall

Stocks in the U.S. fell overnight as Apple shares lost more than 2%, pressuring the broader tech sector.

An analyst at Rosenblatt Securities downgraded the tech giant’s stock to sell from neutral, saying the company will “face fundamental deterioration over the next 6 to 12 months.”

Apple suppliers in Asia Pacific are in focus on Tuesday. Those in Japan fell broadly in early trade, with TDK losing 1% and Nidec declining 0.88%. Alps Alpine dropped 1.39%.

Suppliers in Taiwan also fell across the board. Shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry, or Foxconn, declined 0.51%, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined 0.41%. Catcher Technology plunged 1.94%.

In other company news, nine Chinese companies, among the first to list on China’s Nasdaq-style tech board, announced prices of their new share offer on Tuesday, as investors braced for a busy week for initial public offerings (IPOs). Those include China Railway Signal & Communications, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment and Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology.

Oil and currencies

What’s on tap

The economic calendar for Tuesday:

  • China’s money supply
  • China’s outstanding bank loans.

— Reuters contributed to this report.

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