Asian Equities Echo US Declines as Tech Stocks Hit: Markets Wrap
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(Bloomberg) -- Investors’ pullback from US tech stocks on lackluster corporate results extended into Asia Friday, weighing on the region’s major markets. Oil rallied on fresh Middle East concerns.
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A region-wide equity index fell, with Japanese stocks among the hardest hit. Chinese benchmarks rose as October residential property sales climbed and a survey showed the country’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly picked up last month, a sign of stabilization after Beijing’s stimulus blitz.
Tech stocks were driving the declines elsewhere in Asia, as investors assessed the impact of US tech giants’ performance on Asian suppliers. Chipmakers lagged early in the day, with SK Hynix Inc. falling and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. losing ground as Taiwanese markets reopened after a typhoon.
“Everyone is expecting for further policies to be announced to really continue that momentum that we have been seeing in China’s stock marketplace in the past six weeks or so,” Ken Wong, an Asian equity portfolio specialist at Eastspring Investments, said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
Some of the major non-tech decliners in the Asia index were largely due to sluggish earnings results. Li Auto’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell as much as 12% after the Chinese electric vehicle maker’s fourth-quarter revenue forecast missed estimates.
CSPC Pharmaceutical shares also tumbled after reporting a decline in its preliminary net profit for the first nine months. In Australia, shares of Macquarie Group Ltd. fell after reporting earnings results that fell short of analyst estimates.
The US elections also continue to weigh on markets in Asia. Australia’s 10-year bond yield rose to an 11-month high amid the uncertainties tied to next week’s match-up between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, US Treasuries were steady after minor gains Thursday. Still, October was the worst month for Treasuries in two years after the heavy selling of the past few weeks that reflected a rethink on US interest rates given signs of resilience in the economy. An index of dollar strength was little changed after falling Thursday.
The S&P 500 lost 1.9% and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.4% Thursday, their worst sessions since early September, reflecting investor unease over the earnings of Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc. Apple Inc. shares were slightly softer in post-market trading Thursday after reporting weaker-than-anticipated sales in China. Amazon.com Inc. and Intel Corp. bucked the trend, rising in after-hours trade on optimistic outlooks, supporting a small advance for US stock futures early Friday.