BEIJING/HONG KONG- Asian stocks tracked a steep Wall Street selloff on Thursday, as investors fretted over rising global inflation, China’s zero-COVID policy and the Ukraine war, while the safe-haven dollar held most of its strong overnight gains.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan snapped its four-day streak of gains and slumped 2.3 percent, dragged down by a 1.6 percent loss for Australia’s resource-heavy index, a 3.3 percent drop in Hong Kong stocks and a 1 percent retreat for blue chips in mainland China.
Japan’s Nikkei also skidded, shedding 2.5 percent.
Tech giants listed in Hong Kong were hit hard, with the index plummeting 5 percent on Thursday morning. Tencent shares, in particular, fell more than 7 percent after it reported flat revenue growth in the first quarter, its worst performance since going public in 2004.
China’s technology sector is still reeling from a year-long government crackdown and slowing economic prospects stemming from Beijing’s strict zero-COVID policy, even though soothing comments from Vice Premier Liu He to tech executives had buoyed sentiment on Wednesday.
US and European futures fell on Thursday morning.
Overnight on Wall Street, earnings reports from retail giants added to concerns that high inflation would slow global growth, with Target Corp warning of a bigger margin hit due to rising fuel and freight costs as it reported its quarterly profit had halved. One day earlier, Walmart Inc warned of similar margin squeezes.
Target’s shares plunged 24.88 percent, the biggest one-day percentage drop since 1987.
On Wednesday, the Nasdaq fall almost 5 percent while the S&P 500 lost 4 percent. – Reuters
