Asia Pacific stocks are solidly lower Tuesday following the 2% drop in the U.S.markets on Monday. But many indexes were well off there opening lows in early trading, with Japan’s Nikkei cutting its early losses by two-thirds as the trading day ramped up.
The Nikkei
was down just over 0.7% early, feeling added pressure from further gains overnight by the yen. The index is at 3-month lows and on track for its first 7-day losing streak in three years. New Zealand’s NZX 50
is down 1% after its latest record high Monday, while benchmarks in South Korea and Australia started with declines of 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively.
Chinese equities are holding up better than many others in Asia after leading yesterday’s declines. The declines are back, and mainland indexes are generally down about 1%, but less than that seen in a number of neighboring markets.
Meanwhile, the startup-heavy ChiNext is off just 0.2% after falling more than 2% yesterday to be Asia’s biggest decliner. Oils and 5G are among the weakest spots.
Hong Kong stocks are sharply lower following yesterday’s holiday and the start-of-week selling that’s been seen globally. The Hang Seng
and China Enterprises indexes are both down an initial 1.3%. Macau casino stocks skidded some 5% more in early trading, while Chinese developer Country Garden
is off 3% and Tencent
is down nearly as much. But local landlord Link REIT
and China Mobile
have risen nearly 1%.
Though down about 1%, Singapore stocks are faring better than a number of other Asian markets this morning as yesterday’s global selling accelerated in the US. The Straits Times Index
is down 0.9% at 3205 with just CapitaLand Mall Trust higher. Hutchison
continues to struggle amid trade worries, falling an early 2.2%. Big bank
s off 2%.
Australian consumer confidence fell by 2.1% last week from the prior week, according to an ANZ-Roy Morgan survey. Confidence around economic conditions dropped sharply, however, with current economic conditions down 8.1%, continuing a recent volatile pattern, and future economic conditions falling 3.3%. Australia’s ASX 200
was down about 1%
The story was compiled from Dow Jones Newswires reports.
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