Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower, nervous wait for U.S. jobs data

Asia’s stock markets had their worst session in two weeks on Friday following a tech-led plunge on Wall Street, though gains in safer assets like bonds and dollars were muted as investors awaited U.S. job data to see if it triggers a bigger selloff. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.5% and looked set to snap a six-week winning streak with a 2.3% weekly loss, its biggest since April.

The Nikkei declined 1%. Australia’s ASX 200 led losses with a 3% fall as global investors sold growth-exposed miners like BHP and traders trimmed positions ahead of the weekend in case Wall Street takes another dive. Elsewhere drops were a little lighter, with a 1.5% decline for the Hang Seng and a 1.3% fall in Korea – much less than the overnight 5% plunge in the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Futures were under pressure but backed off early lows. Nasdaq 100 futures were last down 1.1%, S&P 500 futures down 0.3% and those for the pan-Europe Euro STOXX 50 were up 0.3%. FTSE futures fell 0.5%. Focus is now on U.S. payrolls figures due at 1230 GMT, which could be a selling trigger if an expected slowdown in hiring is deeper than forecast.

The euro, which has fallen from a 28-month peak above

.20 on talk that the European Central Bank is concerned about its strength, seems to have arrested its slide for now, and last sat at .1848. The yen was steady at 106.16 per dollar and bonds pared what was a pretty modest rise overnight, given the selloff in the equity market. Benchmark U.S. 10-year bond yields rose about 2 basis points on Friday, having fallen about 3 basis points overnight.

Apple fell 8%, Tesla 9% and Microsoft 6%. Still, the plunge only wound the Nasdaq back as far as where it sat last Tuesday. It is still up 28% for the year so far and 73% higher than its March trough. Brent crude futures fell 0.8% to .72 a barrel and U.S. crude fell 0.9% to .00 a barrel. Gold drifted lower as equities sold off overnight but was last up 0.3% for the day at

,935 an ounce.

Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower, nervous wait for U.S. jobs data, Reuters, Sep 4