Shares in Asia-Pacific largely fell in Tuesday trade following overnight losses on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling more than 2%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.85%, as shares of Fast Retailing fell 6.18%. The Topix index also declined 0.96%. Earlier, the Nikkei had dropped more than 3% and briefly entered correction territory, declining more than 10% off its mid-September high.
South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.44%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong bucked the overall trend regionally, rising 0.17%.
Shares in Australia also slipped, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.46%. The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday announced its decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.47% lower.
Markets in mainland China remain closed on Tuesday for the holidays.
Oil rises
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising 0.47% to $81.64 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.32% to $77.87 per barrel.
Those gains upward came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed Monday to stick to an existing pact to raise oil output by 400,000 barrels per day in November.
Shares of oil companies in Asia-Pacific rose in Tuesday trade, with Beach Energy and Santos in Australia rising 1.4% and 2.61%, respectively. Japan’s Inpex rose 5.38% while PetroChina shares in Hong Kong jumped 4.34%.
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 dropped 1.3% to 4,300.46 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 323.54 points to 34,002.92. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.14% to around 14,255.49.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 93.942 following a recent decline from above 94.
The Japanese yen traded at 111.10 per dollar, stronger than levels above 111.1 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.727, largely holding on to gains after its rise from below $0.724 late last week.
