TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsTech leads Asia stock selloff, yen gains in volatile week for markets
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Journalists observe the stock quotation board at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on Aug. 6, 2024. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
ech shares led a selloff in stock markets around Asia, while the yen and US bonds rebounded, as global investors struggled to find their footing in a wild week for markets.
Japan's Nikkei share average was last down 1 percent, having earlier slumped as much as 2.5 percent, with chip-sector shares the biggest drag on the index. That left the Nikkei down more than 3 percent for the week, following Monday's 12.4 percent plunge, despite the ensuing two-day rebound.
Elsewhere, Taiwan's tech-heavy stock benchmark sagged 2 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares declined 0.8 percent.
"Today's Asia session could be important, as many had bought the dip with the hope that we see real follow-through buying and the upside momentum building," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
"It's clear that we have not been given all clear just yet."
Wall Street futures were weak, with S&P 500 futures EScv1 down 0.24 percent and Nasdaq futures off 0.14 percent following respective declines for the cash indexes of about 0.8 percent and 1.1 percent on Wednesday.
Pan-European STOXX 50 futures sagged 1.2 percent.
The yen generally benefits when market sentiment sours, and appreciated as much as 0.86 percent to 145.43 per dollar before last trading about 0.3 percent stronger at 146.17. The Swiss franc, another traditional haven, added 0.3 percent to 0.8592 per dollar.
The dollar-yen pair also tends to be sensitive to moves in long-term US Treasury yields, which retraced about half of their overnight jump to 3.977 percent and last stood at 3.92 percent in Asian hours.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against the yen, franc, euro and three other major peers, was down slightly at 103.09, while the euro gained a touch to $1.0925.
Currencies, and the yen in particular, have been upended by a shift last week toward bets for steady interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan and aggressive cuts by the Federal Reserve, which helped send the dollar as low as 141.675 yen on Monday for the first time since the start of this year.
Weekly US jobless claims data later in the day could prove market moving following soft monthly payrolls figures on Friday that exacerbated fears of a US economic downturn.
Meanwhile, crude oil continued its rise following data the previous day that showed a bigger-than-expected draw in US crude stockpiles.
Brent crude futures rose 0.3 percent to $78.56 a barrel, following Wednesday's 2.4 percent jump. US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.4 percent to $75.52, building on a 2.8 percent rally from overnight.
