TOKYO- Asia stocks continued a decline from Wall Street on Tuesday, and US long-term Treasury yields sank to a four-month low, pulling the US dollar down against the yen and other currencies as investors worried about the risk of global recession.
There were also jitters about an escalation in Sino-US tension with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi set to begin a visit to Taiwan against the objections of China, which regards the self-governed island as a breakaway province.
Australian equities declined amid an uncertain outlook for commodity demand – which also weighed on crude oil prices – while the local dollar hovered near its highest versus its US counterpart since mid-June with the central bank widely expected to deliver a third consecutive half-point interest rate hike later in the day.
The Australian and South Korean equity benchmarks suffered losses of about 0.3 percent each, while Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 1.17 percent.
Chinese blue chips dropped 1.06 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent.
Taiwan’s stock index slid 1.68 percent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares retreated 0.8 percent.
US e-mini stock futures pointed to a 0.31 percent lower restart for the S&P 500, which stumbled 0.28 percent overnight.
The week began with China, Europe and the United States reporting weakening factory activity, with that in the US decelerating to its lowest level since August 2020.
That sank crude, with Brent futures edging down to $99.74 on Tuesday after losing almost $4 overnight. US West Texas Intermediate futures also eased to $93.67, extending Monday’s almost $5 slide.
