Asian Markets Mostly Lower In Cautious Trading

Asian stock markets are mostly lower in cautious trading on Friday, following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street as a spike in treasury yields and plummeting oil prices weighed down technology and energy stocks. Investors are also concerned about the Fed’s apparent willingness to let inflation accelerate more than normal that will hurt the global economic recovery. Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday.

Australian stock market is declining on Friday, extending the losses of the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 below the 6,700 level. The market was weighed down by sharp losses in energy, materials and technology stocks with another uptick in bond yields. The market is heading for the first weekly decline in three weeks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is declining 30.70 points or 0.46 percent to 6,715.20, after touching a low of 6,673.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is lower by 30.10 points or 0.43 percent to 6,973.50. Australian stocks closed lower on Thursday.

The major miners are weak. Fortescue Metals is down almost 1 percent, BHP Group is losing nearly 2 percent and Rio Tinto is declining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are lower after crude oil prices tumbled overnight. Woodside Petroleum, Oil Search and Santos are losing more than 3 percent each.

Tech stocks are also lower. Afterpay is losing almost 2 percent, WiseTech Global is down nearly 1 percent, and Appen is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.3 percent, Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent and ANZ Banking is edging down 0.1 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining is flat and Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 3 percent, while Newcrest Mining is losing nearly 2 percent.

In economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the total value of retail sales in Australia were down a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent on month in February, coming in at A$30.192 billion. That missed expectations for an increase of 0.4 percent following the revised 0.3 percent gain in January. However, retail sales were up 8.7 percent on year.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.773 on Friday.

The Japanese stock market is declining on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 staying just below the 30,000 mark, following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street on another spike in treasury yields. The market is being weighed down by technology stocks mirroring the steep drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Investors are also looking ahead to the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision due later today. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at -0.1 percent, although additional forms of stimulus are always a possibility.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 29,954.80, down 261.95 points or 0.87 percent, after touching a low of 29,904.57 in early trades. Japanese shares closed higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent, while Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding more than 2 percent and Toyota is also edging up by 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is declining almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is down more than 2 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is up more than 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.3 percent and Sony is losing more than 1 percent, while Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent and Canon is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Fukuoka Financial is gaining almost 5 percent and Nikon is adding more than 4 percent, while Chiba Bank, Haseko and Resona Holdings are up more than 3 percent each. Hitachi Zosen, T&D Holdings, Sumitimo Mitsui, Japan Post, Obayashi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are raising almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sieko Holdings is losing almost 4 percent and Zholdings is down more than 3 percent, while Yaskawa Electric, Fujitsu, Taiyo Yuden and Shiseido are declining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, Overall consumer prices in Japan were down 0.4 percent on year in February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday – in line with expectations and up from a decline of 0.6 percent in January. Core CPI, which exclude volatile food costs, was also down 0.4 percent on an annual basis. That also matched expectations and was up from -0.6 percent in the previous month. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, both overall and core inflation were up 0.1 percent after a 0.6 percent rise in January.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 109 yen-range on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are losing between 0.9 and 1.6 percent each. Indonesia and Malaysia are edging lower. Meanwhile, New Zealand and Singapore are bucking the trend.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday, with the Dow eventually joining the broader Nasdaq and S&P 500 in negative territory as the day progressed. The Nasdaq showed a particularly steep drop amid a sell-off by technology stocks.

The major averages all closed in negative territory, although the Nasdaq underperformed its counterparts by a wide margin. The Nasdaq plunged 409.03 points or 3 percent to 13,116.17, while the Dow fell 153.07 points or 0.5 percent to 32,862.30 and the S&P 500 slumped 58.66 points or 1.5 percent to 3,915.46.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged up by 1.2 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Thursday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to uncertainty about the pace of the economic recovery. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down $4.60 or 7.1 percent at $60.00 a barrel.

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