SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific stocks fell during Thursday trading following overnight falls on Wall Street as bond yields picked up again.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.78% while the Topix index lost 1.93%. South Korean Kospi also fell 1.82%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2.55% by noon. Shares in Mainland China fell, with the Shanghai composite falling 1.58% and the Shenzhen component falling 2.962%.
Shares in Australia also fell as the S & P / ASX 200 fell 1.58%. According to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Statistics, Australian retail sales rose 0.5% month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis in January. That compared to expectations for a 0.6% increase in a Reuters poll.
The country also posted a trade surplus of $ 10.142 billion (about $ 7.88 billion), higher than expected in a Reuters survey for a trade surplus of $ 6.5 billion.
MSCI’s widest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 2.27%.
The move came when the 10-year US Treasury yield rose again, last standing at 1.479%. Revenues move inversely with prices. Benchmark interest rose to a high of 1.6% last week, in a move described by some as a “flashy” spike – raising concerns about stock valuations and a possible rise in inflation.
Bond yields in Asia-Pacific also rose. The yield on the Australian 10-year bond rose to 1.786%, while the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond also rose to 0.137%.
Tech stocks are declining
Investors kept an eye on technology stocks in Asia on Thursday after their counterparts in the United States fell overnight amid a surge in bond yields.
Shares of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group fell 6.01%. In South Korea, heavyweight Samsung Electronics was down 1.9%, while chipmaker SK Hynix was down 4.42%.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese technology companies also suffered heavy losses: Tencent fell 3.87%, Meituan fell 7.09% and Alibaba fell 2.15%. In Taiwan, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company lost 3.22%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 2.7% to close out on Wednesday at 12,997.75, with shares of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet each falling more than 2%.
Other major indices on Wall Street also fell Wednesday: the S&P 500 fell 1.31% to 3,819.72 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 121.43 points to 31,270.09.
Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91,073 from an earlier low of 90,988.
The Japanese yen traded at 107.02 per dollar, still weaker from levels below 106.8 versus the greenback seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7776, weaker than last week above $ 0.792.
Oil prices were higher on Thursday afternoon during Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark for Brent crude oil futures moving 0.47% higher at $ 64.37 a barrel. US crude oil futures were up 0.47% to trade at $ 61.57 a barrel.
On oil developments, OPEC and its non-OPEC partners – an energy alliance sometimes referred to as OPEC + – are expected to meet via video conference Thursday to discuss how to manage supply to the market.
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– CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Yun Li contributed to this report.