Bangkok, Mar 7: Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday, with Tokyo’s benchmark down more than 2% after a sell-off on Wall Street.
US futures and oil prices were higher.
Bitcoin was trading near $88,266, down 3.4% according to CoinDesk, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a government reserve of bitcoin, a key marker in the cryptocurrency’s journey towards possible mainstream acceptance.
China reported lower than expected exports and imports for January-February, with exports growing just 2.3% and imports sinking 8.4%, the government said. China’s trade data for the first two months of the year are usually combined to make up for distortions from Lunar New Year holidays.
US stocks fell after President Donald Trump offered another temporary reprieve from his 25% tariffs on many goods imported from Mexico and Canada, underscoring the uncertainty the tariffs have created for the global economy. Investors showed little enthusiasm, unlike the bounce stocks got the prior day from his giving a one-month exemption specifically for automakers.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.2% to 36,887.17 on heavy selling of technology related shares. Computer chip-maker Tokyo Electron’s shares dropped 3.1% and testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 2.3%. Both saw steep drops in their US-listed shares overnight.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng reversed early gains, dropping 0.7% to 24,204.97, while the Shanghai Composite index handed back 0.3% to 3,372.55.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 1.8% to 7,948.20. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% to 2,563.48 after a court ordered impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to be released from jail, more than a month after he was arrested and indicted over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
The Taiex in Taiwan declined 0.6%.
India’s Sensex was nearly unchanged and SET in Bangkok gained 0.3%.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% to 5,738.52 to resume its slide after a mini-recovery from the prior day clawed back some of its sharp drop over recent weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1% to 42,579.08, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6% to 18,069.26, finishing more than 10% below its record set in December.
Stocks have been buoyed by hopes that Trump may be using tariffs as a negotiating tactic rather than a permanent policy and that he may avoid a worst-case trade war that grinds down economies and sends inflation higher.
But Trump is still pressing ahead with other tariffs scheduled to take effect April 2. And the dizzying back-and-forth moves on tariffs is amping up uncertainty. US businesses are already saying they’re confronting “chaos” because of all the uncertainty coming out of Washington. while households are bracing for higher inflation.
Next up for Wall Street is a report Friday from the US Labour Department on how many workers US employers hired last month. A solid job market so far, along with the solid spending by US households that it’s allowed, have been linchpins in preventing a recession. Economists are expecting to see an acceleration in hiring for February.
Semiconductor companies and their suppliers, which soared to staggering heights because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, led losses. Nvidia, fell 5.7%, while Broadcom lost 6.3% ahead of the release of its earnings report.
In other dealings early Friday, US benchmark crude oil bounced back, gaining 44 cents to $66.80 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, advanced 47 cents to $69.93 per barrel.
The US dollar fell to 147.54 Japanese yen from 147.98 yen. Rising labour costs have reinforced expectations that the Japanese central bank may raise its benchmark interest rate soon to counter surging inflation.
“Japan’s trade unions are requesting an even larger pay hike in this year’s spring wage negotiations than they did a year ago and we expect employers to comply,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a report.
The euro rose to $1.0841 from $1.0786, gaining after the European Central Bank cut interest rates Thursday, as expected. (AP)
