SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Friday morning trade, following heavy losses overnight on Wall Street that saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunging nearly 4%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.24% in early trade while the Topix index declined fractionally. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.33% higher.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia edged fractionally lower.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.16% higher.
Markets in Hong Kong are set to return to trade on Friday after being closed for most of this week due to the Lunar New Year holidays. Over in mainland China, markets remain closed for the holidays.
Wall Street drop
The major averages fell overnight stateside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeting 3.74% to 13,878.82 — its worst day since September 2020.
The S&P 500 also saw significant losses, declining 2.44% to 4,477.44 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 518.17 points, or 1.45%, to 35,111.16.
U.S. stock futures later pointed to a reversal of some of those losses, following strong quarterly results from tech companies like Amazon and Snap. Dow futures climbed about 200 points. S&P 500 futures gained 1.13% while Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 1.87%.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.379 — having declined from above 96.6 earlier in the week.
The Japanese yen traded at 114.95 per dollar, weaker than levels below 114.5 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7141, largely holding on to gains after its rise from below $0.702 earlier in the trading week.
Read More:Asia-Pacific stocks mixed following overnight Wall Street tumble
2022-02-03 23:33:48
