Asian Markets Track Wall Street Lower

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with tech-heavy markets of South Korea and Japan leading the losses in the region on tumbling artificial intelligence-related stocks amid concerns about an AI bubble burst. Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday.

Negative sentiment may also have been generated in reaction to a report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showing a sharp increase in layoff announcements in the month of October.

The Australian stock market is trading modestly lower on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,800 level, with weakness in iron ore miners and technology stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners, energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 38.00 points or 0.43 percent to 8,790.30, after hitting a low of 8,790.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 43.70 points or 0.48 percent to 9,054.90. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is declining almost 3 percent, Rio Tinto is slipping more than 1 percent and Fortescue are down almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy and Santos are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Woodside Energy is adding more than 1 percent and Beach energy is gaining almost 2 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is tumbling more than 14 percent, Zip is losing more than 5 percent and Appen down more than 4 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are declining almost 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is edging down 0.4 percent, Westpac is declining more than 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while National Australia Bank is advancing more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining is gaining more than 3 percent, Newmont is advancing almost 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is adding almost 1 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Qantas-backed Alliance Aviation are plummeting almost 40 percent on resumption of trading after a voluntary suspension. The aviation services provider warned FY26 results would fall well short of analyst expectations due to higher aircraft, engine and maintenance costs. Founding managing director Scott McMillan stepped down from the board immediately, with chief financial officer Andrew Evans also resigning. The company noting the departures are unrelated to its outlook.

Shares in Macquarie Group are tumbling more than 7 percent after the investment bank reported downbeat half-yearly financial results.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Friday.

Reversing the gains in the previous session, the Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is tumbling more than 2 percent to fall below the 49,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 49,783.49, down 1,100.19 points or 2.16 percent, after hitting a low of 49,770.55 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling almost 8 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent, while Honda is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling almost 7 percent, Screen Holdings is losing almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining almost 2 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Sony is declining more than 2 percent, Panasonic is edging down 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 3 percent, while Canon is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Kanadevia is plummeting almost 19 percent, Taiyo Yuden is plunging more than 16 percent and Ajinomoto is tumbling almost 16 percent and Ibiden is sliding almost 7 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Mitsui Kinzoku are declining more than 4 percent each. IHI and Disco are losing almost 4 percent each, while Fujikura, Renesas Electronics, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Yaskawa Electric and Yokogawa Electric are down more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Recruit Holdings is soaring almost 15 percent, Nissan Motor is surging more than 5 percent and Chugai Pharmaceutical is gaining almost 5 percent, while Nomura Research Institute and Hino Motors are advancing more than 4 percent each. Ryohin Keikaku and Suzuki Motor are adding almost 4 percent each, while BANDAI NAMCO and Nippon Steel are up almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the average of household spending in Japan was up 1.8 percent on year in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - coming in at 303,214 yen. That missed expectations for an increase of 2.5 percent and was down from 1.3 percent in August.

On a monthly basis, household spending was down 0.7 percent after rising 0.6 percent in the previous month. The average of monthly income per household stood at 510,935 yen, roughly unchanged from the previous year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 153 yen-range on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea is down 2.1 percent, while China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are lower by between 0.1 and 0.8 percent each. New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia are higher by between 0.3 and 0.6 percent each.

On Wall Street, stocks saw continued weakness throughout much of the trading day on Thursday after coming under pressure early in the session. The major averages more than offset the gains posted during Wednesday's session, falling to their lowest closing levels in two weeks.

The major averages moved to the downside going into close, ending the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq tumbled 445.80 points or 1.9 percent to 23,053.99, the S&P 500 slumped 75.97 points or 1.1 percent to 6,720.32 and the Dow slid 398.70 points or 0.8 percent to 46,912.30.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.3 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices fell Thursday on oversupply concerns after the American Petroleum Institute revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories increased much more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.21 or 0.35 percent at $59.39 per barrel.