Asian Shares Mixed Amid Investor Worries Over Wall St Tumbles

Tokyo: Asian shares were trading mixed amid global skepticism about US investments and President Donald Trump’s trade war.Trading was cautious in Asia, where the benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3 per cent to 34,174.38. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was virtually unchanged, inching up less than 0.1 per cent to 7,820.20. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.2 per cent to 2,493.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 21,387.51, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3 per cent to 3,301.59.

On Wall Street the previous day, the S&P 500 sank 2.4 per cent in another wipeout. That yanked the index that’s at the centre of many 401(k) accounts 16 per cent below a record set two months ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 971 points, or 2.5 per cent, while losses for Tesla and Nvidia helped drag the Nasdaq composite down 2.6 per cent.

US government bonds and the value of the US dollar also sank as prices retreated across US markets. That’s an unusual and worrying move because Treasury and the dollar have historically strengthened during episodes of nervousness. This time around, though, it’s policies directly from Washington that are causing the fear and potentially weakening their reputations as some of the world’s safest investments.