Asian markets take a step back to start September
Asian stock markets started September lower in early Monday trading, as trade-war fears increased after the U.S. and Canada missed a deal deadline set for Friday and uncertainty rose about escalating tariffs…
From the Equity Insider archive. This article dates from Sep 3, 2018 and is preserved as first published.
Asian stock markets started September lower in early Monday trading, as trade-war fears increased after the U.S. and Canada missed a deal deadline set for Friday and uncertainty rose about escalating tariffs between the U.S. and China.
U.S. markets will be closed for the Labor Day holiday, but S&P 500 futures ESU8, +0.05% were up 0.15%.
Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -0.61% eased 0.4% even with the yen USDJPY, -0.16% little changed from Friday’s end-of-day levels in Tokyo. Steel and energy names were among the biggest laggards, with crude explorer Inpex 1605, -1.44% and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal 5401, -1.72% both down some 1.5%. Meanwhile, Renesas Electronics 6723, -5.95% was down 5% on news it is in the late stages of talks to possibly buy California-based Integrated Device Technology IDTI, +12.29% for about $6 billion. Sony 6758, -1.21% and Toyota 7203, -1.56% also logged near-1% declines.
Steel and energy names were among the biggest laggards, with crude explorer Inpex 1605, -1.
Chinese stocks, already widely down for four straight days, continued to slump. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.75% was down 0.4% and the Shenzhen Composite 399106, -1.00% was off 0.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.92% was down 0.3%, as Tencent 0700, -2.65% dropped an additional 2% following the Chinese government’s crackdown last week on online games.
South Korea’s Kospi SEU, -0.74% slipped 0.5% as index heavyweights Samsung 005930, -2.06% and Posco 005490, -1.99% fell more than 1.5% each.
New Zealand’s NZX 50 NZ50GR, -0.60% was off 0.5%, with Fisher & Paykel FPH, -3.90% sliding 4.5% after the medical-device firm was slapped with a patent-infringement lawsuit, while a2 Milk ATM, +1.43% dropped 2.1%. Australia’s ASX 200 XJO, -0.03% tried to buck the trend, rising 0.1% amid early strength in mining and consumer stocks.
Benchmarks in Taiwan Y9999, -0.90% , Singapore STI, -0.47% and Malaysia FBMKLCI, -0.19% were all down about 0.5%.
