Asian shares skidded on Tuesday after a rout in tech stocks put Wall Street to the sword, while a sharp drop in oil prices and political risks in Europe pushed the dollar to 16-month highs as investors dumped riskier assets.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped 1.7 percent to a 1-1/2 week trough, with Australian shares sinking 1.6 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei .N225 dived 3.1 percent led by losses in electric machinery makers and suppliers of Apple’s (AAPL.O) iphone parts.
Overnight in Wall Street, major U.S. stock indexes skidded more than 1 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumping over 2 percent. Indexes were weighed down by losses in heavyweight Apple after three iPhone parts suppliers issued warning on results.
The grim outlook triggered a steep selloff in Asian tech firms, with shares in Japan Display (6740.T) plummeting over 11 percent while Murata Manufacturing (6981.T) and TDK Corp (6762.T) dived as much as 8.9 percent and 8.4 percent respectively.
South Korea’s KOSPI index .KS11 dropped 2.2 percent with Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) down 2.8 percent.
A toxic mix of negative factors have hammered risk assets in the past several weeks, with the October rout in equities leaving global markets in a state of nervous anxiety. Investors have become increasingly nervous recently about a likely peak in corporate earnings growth, softening global demand, faster rate hikes in the United States and a Sino-U.S. trade war.
The Asia ex-Japan index is now down nearly 17 percent this year, after a solid 33.5 percent gain in 2017, with…
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