Asia-Pacific markets slid Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as technology stocks continued to come under pressure and Fed rate-cut doubts swirled. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 1.85%, while the Topix slid 1.03%. Tech stocks led declines on the index, with tech conglomerate Rakuten Group tumbling 6.57%, semiconductor testing equipment maker Advantest falling 5.27%, and Lasertec retreating 3.97%. Japanese giant SoftBank plunged as much as 8% in early trading, marking its third consecutive day of decline after it said Tuesday it had sold its entire stake in Nvidia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.29% and the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.42% lower. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped more than 3%, while SK Hynix, which supplies memory chips to Nvidia, fell 5%.
Stocks retreated on Thursday, with technology stocks coming under pressure for another day. Investors also grew pessimistic about the interest rate outlook. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 797.60 points, or 1.65%, to settle at 47,457.22, which is well off the record highs seen in the previous session. The S&P 500 shed 1.66% to finish at 6,737.49. The broad-based index saw notable declines in the communication services sector, led by Disney falling nearly 8% on mixed results for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, as well as information technology. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 2.29% to close at 22,870.36. All three major averages, as well as the small-cap Russell 2000 index, suffered their worst day since Oct. 10.
Gold prices rose in Asian trade on Friday as heightened uncertainty over the U.S. economy drove some haven buying, although waning bets on a December interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve limited overall gains. The yellow metal was also headed for its first weekly gain in four, after handily retaking the $4,000 an ounce level this week. Broader precious metal prices also advanced. Spot gold rose 0.4% to $4,187.43/oz by 00:24 ET (05:24 GMT), while gold futures for December fell slightly to $4,190.75/oz. Spot gold was trading up about 5% this week, catching some safe haven bids amid growing uncertainty over the U.S. economic outlook. A nearly 43 day-long government shutdown ended this week, with the government now expected to resume releasing official economic data in the coming weeks.
Oil prices edged up on Thursday, taking a break after major losses in the previous session, as investors weighed concerns about global oversupply with looming sanctions against Russia’s Lukoil. Brent crude futures rose 55 cents to $63.24 a barrel, after dropping 3.8% a day earlier. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude inched up 50 cents to $59.01 a barrel, taking back some of Wednesday’s 4.2% decline. The U.S. has hit Lukoil with sanctions as part of its efforts to bring the Kremlin to peace talks over Ukraine. The sanctions prohibit transactions with the Russian company after Nov. 21.
China’s slowdown worsened in October, dragged by soft consumer demand and a deepening property downturn, with the long holiday period further denting factory activity. Fixed-asset investment, which includes real estate, contracted 1.7% for the first ten months of the year, steepening from a 0.5% decline in the January-to-September period, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.8% drop. The last time China recorded a contraction in fixed-asset investment was in 2020 during the pandemic, according to data going back to 1992 from Wind Information, a private database focused on the country. Within that segment, property investment continued to decline, shrinking 14.7% in the year through October, compared with a 13.9% contraction in the first nine months.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell wasn’t kidding a couple weeks ago when he said a December rate cut wasn’t in the bag. Recent remarks from Powell’s colleagues point to plenty of apprehension over whether the central bank should deliver its third consecutive easing of policy when it meets Dec. 9-10. As a result, markets have recalibrated their expectations. Whereas traders as recently as a few days ago were pricing in at least a 2-to-1 probability of a quarter percentage point cut, that’s now flipped to a coin toss, according to futures markets readings tabulated by the CME Group in its FedWatch tool. As of Thursday afternoon, the implied probability of a rate cut was at 49.4%, according to the CME gauge that uses prices on 30-day fed funds futures contracts to interpolate probabilities for rate moves.
The United States said Thursday it will remove tariffs on some foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador under framework agreements that will give U.S. firms greater access to those markets. The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers. The framework deals with most of the four countries should be finalized within the next two weeks, the official said, with additional agreements seen as possible before the end of the year. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said the U.S. planned some “substantial” announcements in coming days that would lead to lower prices on coffee, bananas and other fruits, as part of a push by the Trump administration to drive down the cost of living for Americans.
Back pay owed to federal workers for the time they were furloughed during the government shutdown is expected to land in their bank accounts early next week, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Thursday. “There really has been an aggressive effort to get people to get their checks as soon as possible,” Hassett told reporters, a day after President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill that allowed the government to reopen after 43 days. “I think that the payments will come, probably early next week,” Hassett said, as hundreds of thousands of federal workers returned to their offices. The timing of the payments might be affected depending on the agencies where employees work.
Applied Materials said on Thursday it expects spending on chipmaking equipment in China to fall in 2026 as tighter U.S. export controls limit its market access, with overall revenue projected to be stronger in the second half of the year. While tighter U.S. export curbs are expected to dampen demand, strong memory output tied to surging AI investments is likely to help partially offset the impact. Shares fell more than 4% in after-hours trading. Last month, the company forecast a $600 million hit to fiscal 2026 revenue following the U.S. expansion of export restrictions, which complicates shipments of certain products and services to China-based customers. The company said about $110 million worth of products were not shipped in the fourth quarter due to an affiliate rule that was later suspended after talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The products will ship in the three months to January and are included in the forecast.
Walt Disney signalled on Thursday it was girding for a potentially prolonged fight with YouTube TV over distribution of its television networks, worrying investors about the outlook for its already declining TV business. The company also missed quarterly revenue expectations as the cable weakness overshadowed strong growth in the company’s streaming and parks businesses central to its growth. Shares were down 8.3% in afternoon trading Thursday. On a post-earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told analysts Disney has "built a hedge" into its forecasts assuming the negotiations could drag on. Disney’s networks disappeared from YouTube TV - the fourth-largest pay-TV provider in the U.S. with about 10 million subscribers - on October 30 in the latest carriage rights dispute between the Alphabet unit and a major media company.
Paramount, Comcast and Netflix are preparing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, with a November 20 deadline for non-binding first-round offers. Warner Bros. Discovery is conducting an auction process with the goal of completing it by the end of 2025, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Paramount plans to participate in the formal auction and remains committed to acquiring the entire company, sources said. The David Ellison-led company had previously submitted multiple unsolicited offers to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which subsequently put itself up for sale. Comcast and Netflix have different acquisition targets in mind. Both companies are primarily interested in the Warner Bros. movie and television studios and the HBO Max streaming service, but not Warner’s cable network holdings, which include CNN, TNT and Discovery Channel.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks plunged on Thursday as Bitcoin retreated below the key $100,000 level, reaching a low of $98,100, down 3.5% on the day. Ethereum also experienced significant pressure, falling 6.3% to $3,183. The crypto market decline coincides with broader weakness in technology stocks, as the Nasdaq heads toward its third consecutive session of losses. Investors have been rotating capital out of expensive technology and AI names into more defensive sectors like healthcare. Market sentiment has further soured after several Federal Reserve officials expressed doubts about another interest rate cut in December, causing investors to reduce their expectations for monetary easing.