Asian Markets Track Wall Street Lower

Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, amid renewed concerns about the US Fed further postponing its first interest rate cut to after June, following the release of hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data for February. Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday.

Adding to the losses in the previous session, the Australian stock market is significantly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 7,700 level, with losses in mining, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in energy stocks on firmer crude oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 72.00 points or 0.93 percent to 7,641.60, after hitting a low of 7,591.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 74.90 points or 0.94 percent to 7,899.10. Australian markets ended modestly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, Fortescue Metals is declining more than 3 percent, Rio Tinto is slipping almost 3 percent and Mineral Resources is sliding more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.4 percent, Beach energy is advancing 1.5 percent and Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is losing almost 3 percent, Appen is declining almost 4 percent, Afterpay owner Block is slipping almost 5 percent and Xero is down more than 1 percent, while Zip is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 2 percent each, while Westpac is declining almost 3 percent and ANZ Banking is slipping more than 2 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Evolution Mining is losing almost 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is declining 3.5 percent, Gold Road Resources is slipping more than 3 percent and Newmont is down almost 1 percent. Resolute Mining is flat.

In other news, shares in Tabcorp are slipping more than 6 percent after its chief executive Adam Rytenskild quit the business on allegations he used inappropriate and offensive language.

Shares in EML Payments are surging more than 5 percent after it agreed to sell its Sentenial payments business for an enterprise value of $54.1 million.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Friday.

Giving up some of the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling below the 38,800 level, with losses in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 38,751.54, down 55.84 points or 0.14 percent, after hitting a low of 38,519.94 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are declining more than 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent, Canon is edging up 0.1 percent and Panasonic is adding almost 1 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among other major losers, Sumco is losing almost 4 percent, while Japan Exchange and Shiseido are declining more than 3 percent each. Keio is down almost 3 percent. Furukawa Electric is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is soaring more than 8 percent, Inpex is surging more than 5 percent, Idemitsu Kosan is gaining more than 4 percent and Casio Computer is up more than 3 percent, while DeNA, Mitsubishi and ENEOS Holdings are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong and South Korea are down 1.3 and 2.0 percent, respectively. New Zealand, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia are lower by between 0.3 and 0.8 percent each.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction in early trading on Thursday but moved mostly lower over the course of the session. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day, although selling pressure remained somewhat subdued.

The major averages climbed well off their worst levels going into the close but remained in negative territory. The Dow slid 137.66 points or 0.4 percent to 39,905.66, the Nasdaq fell 49.24 points or 0.3 percent to 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 dipped 14.83 points or 0.3 percent to 5,150.48.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil futures rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.