Asian Markets A Sea Of Red Amid Global Sell-off

Asian stock markets are in a sea of red and sharply lower on Wednesday, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street and other global markets, as technology stocks helped led the markets lower amid a continued advance by treasury yields came after the US Fed has signaled plans to begin scaling back its asset purchases in the near future and raise interest rates next year. Asian Markets closed mixed on Tuesday.

The concerns over the debt-ceiling impasse in Washington, China’s power crunch and the Evergrande situation added to investor worries over slowing global growth.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned members of the Senate Banking Committee about upside risks to inflation during testimony on Tuesday morning. In prepared remarks, Powell predicted inflation will remain elevated in the coming months before moderating.

The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the sharp loss in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 just below the 7,200 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, with technology and mining stocks following their Wall Street peers lower, even as the domestic coronavirus situation remains a concern, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria.

NSW recorded 863 new local cases and fifteen deaths on Tuesday. Victoria reported a record 950 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths, with 9,890 total active cases across Victoria.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 88.00 points or 1.21 percent to 7,187.60, after hitting a low of 7,145.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 92.50 points or 1.22 percent to 7,488.60. Australian stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 2 percent, Mineral Resources is down almost 4 percent and OZ Minerals is declining almost 2 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are lower by more than 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are lower. Woodside Petroleum, Origin Energy, Oil Search and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is flat.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is losing almost 2 percent and Appen is declining almost 3 percent, while Xero and Afterpay are down more than 3 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent and Resolute Mining is up almost 2 percent, while Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are adding almost 1 percent each. Newcrest Mining is flat.

In other news, shares in Smartgroup are soaring almost 17 percent after the salary packaging firm received a non-binding $10.35 per share takeover bid from private equity firms TPG Capital and Potentia.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.724 on Wednesday.

The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the slight losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei index losing almost 800 points to be below the 29,400 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street and the China power crisis that drastically hit Toyota’s production and supply chain.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 29,442.14, down 741.82 points or 2.46 percent, after hitting a low of 29,358.26 earlier. Japanese stocks closed slightly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing 1.5 percent and Toyota is plummeting 80 percent as China power crisis drastically hits its production and supply chain.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing more than 4 percent, while Advantest and Tokyo Electron are declining almost 5 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is losing 3.5 percent, Sony is declining more than 4 percent, Canon is down more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is lower by almost 2 percent.

Among the other major losers, Japan Post Holdings is losing almost 5 percent, while Hitachi and Daikin Industries are down more than 4 percent each. Taiyo Yuden is lower by almost 4 percent, while Recruit Holdings, Z Holdings, Yaskawa Electric, GS Yuasa, Casio Computer, Olympus and Sumitomo Realty & Development are all declining more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is gaining more than 4 percent, while IHI and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are adding almost 4 percent each. Nippon Yusen K.K. is down more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 111 yen-range on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korean is tumbling 2.5 percent, China is plummeting 1.8 percent and Taiwan is plunging 1.5 percent, while New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia are lower by between 0.2 and 0.6 percent each. Indonesia is relatively flat.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Tuesday, following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. With the steep drops on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 fell to their lowest closing levels in one and two months, respectively.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Dow tumbled 569.38 points or 1.6 percent to 34,299.99, the Nasdaq plunged 423.29 points or 2.8 percent to 14,546.68 and the S&P 500 slumped 90.48 points or 2 percent to 4,352.63.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index plunged by 2.1 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures ended lower Tuesday, snapping a five-day winning streak as a sell-off in stock markets and a stronger dollar weighed on the commodity. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $0.16 or 0.2 percent at $75.29 a barrel.

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