Asian Shares Slip on Selling of Tech Stocks as Wall St. Wobbles

Asian shares were mostly lower Wednesday amid selling in technology stocks following a lackluster day on Wall Street. US futures edged higher, while crude oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7% to 9,030.0. (Photo: Klauskazamias, Wikimedia Commons)

Chinese markets retreated after US President Donald Trump cast doubt on whether he would meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month, Yuri Kageyama reported for The Associated Press (AP).

“Maybe it won’t happen, maybe it won’t happen,” he said while hosting a lunch for Republican senators at the White House.

However, Trump also said he expected “to do well” in negotiations with China. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.8% to 25,819.10, while the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.1% to 3,914.97.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 wavered between slight gains and losses a day after its parliament chose Sanae Takaichi as its first female prime minister.

It closed almost flat at 49,307.79, pulled lower by declines in tech companies such as SoftBank Group Corp., whose shares fell about 5%.

The government reported that Japan’s exports grew 4.2% in September from a year earlier, boosted by robust shipments to Asia that offset a 13% decline in those bound for the US.

Auto shipments fell 24% as they were hit hard by Trump’s tariff hikes. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7% to 9,030.00, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.6% to 3,883.68.

On Tuesday in New York, the S&P 500 inched up a fraction of a point, leaving it just below its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to a new record, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%.