HONG KONG- Asian shares declined in early trade on Tuesday as growing anxiety over the spike in the Delta variant of COVID-19 infections and turmoil in Afghanistan eclipsed overnight strength on Wall Street.
The continued spread of new COVID-19 variants and the impact on the global economy have shaken market confidence, with traders looking out for earnings reports from major retailers due later in the week.
Investors were also watching news from Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country thronged Kabul airport after the Taliban seized the capital and declared the war against foreign and local forces over.
“Disappointing Chinese economic data, anxiety over developments in Afghanistan, concerns over the impacts of the Delta variant, and a steeper-than-expected pull-back in the NY Empire State manufacturing index weighed on risk appetite, boosting safe haven demand,” analysts at ANZ said in a note.
Early in the Asian trading day, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent while US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.18 percent.
Australian shares fell 0.75 percent, although Japan’s Nikkei stock index edged up 0.22 percent.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index dipped 0.18 percent in early trade, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index opened down 0.4 percent.
Wall Street rebounded on Monday, pushing up two of its three major indices, with the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow industrials hitting record highs, as investors moved into defensive sectors and stocks recovered from initial losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose 0.31 percent and 0.26 percent, respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2 percent.
