Asian Stocks Retreat As Wall Street, Europe Shares Fall

Asian shares followed Wall Street and Europe lower on Friday, with markets jittery over the risk that the Federal Reserve and other central banks may end up bringing on recessions to get inflation under control, Elaine Kurtenbach reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The SGX

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was flat, at 19,369.65 while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.3% to 3,160.67. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.7% to 27,569.56 after a survey of manufacturers showed a further contraction in output.

The Kospi in Seoul edged 0.2% lower to 2,357.97, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.3% to 7,180.50. Shares in Taiwan fell 1.2% and the SET in Bangkok lost 0.2%. Mumbai dropped 1.4%.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 2.5% to 3,895.75, erasing its gains from early in the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 3.2% to 10,810.53 and the Dow gave back 2.2% to 33,202.22.

Oil prices and US futures edged higher, Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga also reported for AP.

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