Asian stocks ease on anxiety over trade, growth risks

Asian stocks lost ground on Friday as investors worried about a broadening global economic slowdown, with sentiment not helped by the absence of any positive signs for a resolution in the U.S.-China trade row.

Asian Stocks

  • MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.5 percent.
  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.25 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI retreated 1.1 percent.
  • Japan’s Nikkei tumbled about 2 percent. 

Currencies

  • The euro sagged under the weight of declining German bund yields. The single currency was little changed at $1.1339
  • The dollar was a shade lower at 109.750 yen.
  •  The U.S. currency was still headed for a small weekly gain of 0.3 percent against the yen.

Commodities

  •  U.S. crude futures slipped 0.7 percent to $52.27 per barrel, extending losses after dropping 2.5 percent in the previous session.
  • Brent crude was down 0.6 percent at $61.26 per barrel
  • Oil fell as the market was hurt by concerns that global demand growth would lag in the coming year.

Bonds

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield extended its overnight decline to a one-week low of 2.643 percent.
  • The 20-year Japanese government bond yield dropped to a 27-month trough of 0.400 percent.
  • The 10-year German bund yield fell to 0.105 percent on Thursday, its lowest since November 2016 after the European Commission’s sharp cuts to growth and inflation forecasts.

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