Asian Markets Mostly Lower

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, amid ongoing concerns over the deteriorating health of the global economy and the possibility of higher interest rates leading to a recession. The post opening surge in Covid-19 cases in China is also dampening market sentiment. Asian Markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday.

Traders are now looking ahead to next week's closely watched monthly jobs report from the US, which could shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Australian stock market is significantly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by energy and mining stocks on weaker commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 88.30 points or 1.25 percent to 6,998.10, after hitting a low of 6,995.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 87.40 points or 1.20 percent to 7,174.80. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent, Mineral Resources is declining more than 2 percent and Rio Tinto is down almost 1 percent, while OZ Minerals and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 3 percent each, while Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent and Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.3 percent, Xero is losing almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is declining 1.5 percent, while Appen is gaining almost 2 percent and Zip is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 1 percent each, while Westpac is down more than 1 percent. ANZ Banking Bank is flat.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is losing almost 2 percent, Newcrest Mining is down more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is declining almost 1 percent and Evolution Mining is slipping 1.5 percent. Resolute Mining is flat.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.674 on Thursday.

The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 26,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by exporters, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 25,998.76, down 341.74 points or 1.30 percent, after hitting a low of 25,953.92 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota and Honda are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic and Sony are losing almost 1 percent each, while Canon is declining 2.5 percent.

Among the other major losers, IHI Corp. is losing more than 3 percent, while Aozora Bank, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fukuoka Financial Group are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nexon is gaining almost 5 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 133 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea and Hong Kong are down 1.4 and 1.2 percent, respectively. China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan are lower by between 0.3 and 0.9 percent each. New Zealand is bucking the trend and is up 0.3 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction in early trading on Wednesday but moved sharply lower over the course of the session. With the steep drop on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session at its lowest closing level in over two years.

The major averages finished the session just off their worst levels of the day. While the Nasdaq plunged 139.94 points or 1.4 percent to 10,213.29, the S&P 500 dove 46.03 points or 1.2 percent to 3,783.22 and the Dow tumbled 365.85 points or 1.1 percent to 32,875.71.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices dropped Wednesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid fears of a global recession and rising COVID-19 cases in China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended down $0.57 or 0.7 percent at $78.86 a barrel.