Asia-Pacific Stocks Tumble

Asia-Pacific markets fell on Friday, mirroring overnight losses on Wall Street. Meanwhile, oil prices fell slightly from their 2014 highs earlier this week, falling about 2%.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan recovered earlier losses, falling 0.9 percent to close at 27,522.26, while the Topix fell 0.59 percent to 1,927.18. Auto and technology stocks fell across the board but recovered some losses. Toyota was down more than 2%, Mazda was down 3.39 percent, and Mitsubishi was down 3.73 percent.

Sony was down 1.37 percent, and Softbank was down 0.72 percent in the technology sector.

Japan’s inflation data released on Friday showed that core consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in December compared to the previous year, as fuel and raw material costs increased.

The ASX 200 in Australia fell 2.27 percent to 7,175.80, as significant miners, oil companies, and banks fell.

Mainland stocks fell, with the Shanghai Composite falling 0.91 percent to 3,522.57 and the Shenzhen component falling 1.19 percent to 14,029.55.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 1% to 2,834.29. It dropped 1.75 percent to 17,899.30.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.19 percent in the final hour of trading. Alibaba fell 3.7 percent.

In other news, Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation, Singapore’s first SPAC, made its debut on Thursday afternoon, garnering a strong response from investors, with the retail tranche of 600,000 units being 36 times subscribed. The stock closed 1 percent higher than its offer price. Stocks fell on Wall Street. The Nasdaq Composite finished the session down 1.3 percent at 14,154.02 after rising 2.1 percent earlier in the day. It pushed the index into correction territory or more than 10% below its November high.

Currencies and Oil

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 313.26 points to 34,715.39, closing below its 200-day moving average for the first time since December 2021. The S&P 500 dropped 1.1 percent to 4,482.73, closing below 4,500 for the first time since October 20, 2021.

On Thursday, oil prices fell after reaching their highest level since 2014 Wednesday, as supply concerns alleviated.

Oil prices fell further on Friday afternoon during Asia hours. However, they recovered some of the losses from the previous day’s 3% drop. The cost of US crude fell 1.57 percent to $84.2 per barrel, while Brent fell 1.37 percent to $87.17.

Crude oil’s rally paused after US crude stockpiles rose modestly.

European Stocks Drop

Following a sell-off on Wall Street, European shares fell on Friday, with shares in technology companies under renewed pressure after Netflix warned about subscriber growth late Thursday.

In early trade, the regional Stoxx 600 equity index fell 1.3%. European technology stocks fell 2.1 percent.

On Thursday, these moves came after swings in US stock markets resulted in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index closing 1.3% lower — down nearly 13% from a record high set only in November. The broader-based S&P 500 index also fell more than 1%. Futures markets tracking the blue-chip index and the top 100 Nasdaq stocks were lower in the European morning on Friday.

On Thursday, Netflix warned that subscriber growth would slow significantly in the first quarter. In pre-market trading on Friday, shares of the streaming service fell by a fifth. The group is a heavyweight on major US stock indices, with a market value of $225 billion.

The Stoxx oil and gas sub-index fell nearly as much as the Stoxx tech sector, while European banks fell 1%. Siemens Energy shares fell 12% after cutting its full-year financial targets.