Tech shares were notable underperformers on the Nikkei, following a 1.1% overnight decline for Wall Street’s Nasdaq Composite
Asian stock markets swung between gains and losses on Thursday, while the yen and U.S. bonds attempted to rebound, as global investors struggled to find their footing in a turbulent week for markets.
Japan’s Nikkei share average swung from early losses of 2.5% and gains of 0.8% before trading 0.6% lower as of 0445 GMT. That left the index down 2.8% for the week, following Monday’s 12.4% slump, despite the ensuing two-day rebound.
Tech shares were notable underperformers on the Nikkei, following a 1.1% overnight decline for Wall Street’s Nasdaq Composite.
Taiwan’s tech-heavy stock benchmark dipped 1.5% and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.9%.
However, gains for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which reversed earlier losses to gain 0.7%, and for mainland blue chips helped to keep declines for MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares to 0.3%.
Nasdaq futures were volatile, trading flat after swinging between gains and losses.
Pan-European STOXX 50 futures declined 1.1%.
Today’s Asia session could be important, as many had bought the dip with the hope that we see real follow-through buying and the upside momentum building, according to Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
It is clear that we have not been given all clear just yet, he said.
The yen generally benefits when market sentiment sours, and was up nearly 0.5% at 145.98 per dollar in a volatile session that saw it up 0.86% at one point but also down 0.14%.
The Swiss franc, another traditional haven, gained 0.3% to 0/8592 per dollar.
The dollar-yen pair also tends to be sensitive to moves in long-term U.S. Treasury yields, which retraced about half of their overnight rise to 3.977% and sat at 3.91% in Asian hours.
The dollar index was down 0.08% at 103.03, while the euro gained by the same margin to $1.0931.
