Asian markets retreated in early trading Thursday, as geopolitical tensions and the inverted U.S. Treasury yield curve weighed on investors concerned about a global economic slowdown.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that he expects Chinese officials to travel to Washington for renewed trade negotiations, but did not give a timeline, Bloomberg News reported. He did not say if a previously scheduled September meeting would take place. Mnuchin also told Bloomberg that the U.S. does not plan in intervening in the U.S. dollar market for the time being, though “situations could change in the future.”
Japan’s Nikkei
fell 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
slid 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite
retreated 0.2% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
inched down 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi
declined 0.2%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan
, Singapore
and Indonesia
were mixed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
slipped 0.1%.
Among individual stocks, e-commerce company Rakuten
rose in Tokyo trading, while Honda
and Nissan
fell. In Hong Kong, Geely Automobile
dropped, along with tech giant Tencent
and casino operator Galaxy Entertainment
. Samsung
and SK Hynix
retreated in South Korea, and Beach Energy
rose in Australia.