Stock Market Live Updates: Asia shares plunge on fears of recession

Asian stocks plunge on fears of recession

Stocks in Asia fell on Friday amid fears of an economic slowdown as monetary policy tightened to fight high inflation.

Japanese shares fell nearly 2%, but China and Hong Kong managed to buck the regional trend with steady opens. US equity futures stabilized and posted modest gains after the S&P 500 closed at its lowest level since December 2020.

Treasuries extended a period of marked volatility, boosting the 10-year yield to about 3.27%. The dollar has bounced from its worst fall in two days since 2020.

Markets are closing in on a week impacted by a hike in interest rates, including the biggest move by the Federal Reserve since 1994, a surprise hike by the Swiss National Bank, which activated the franc, and the latest increase in UK lending costs. is included.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.6%. Euro Stokes 50 futures fell 0.2%.

Japan’s Topix index was down 2.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.3%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.5% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.1%.

Overnight, shares fell on Wall Street as concerns resurfaced that the world’s fragile economy could bow under high interest rates.

The S&P 500 fell 3.3% in a broader rout, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.4% and was briefly down more than 900 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.1%. It was the sixth loss for the S&P 500 in seven previous attempts, and all but 3% of the shares in the index fell.