By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian equities fell Thursday after a
pullback on Wall Street, with Japanese stocks suffering a broad
reversal after rallies in the previous two days, while an increase
in gold prices and some strong earnings reports supported
Australian shares.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average lost 1.3%, and Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1%. The South Korean market was closed
for a holiday.
The losses came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)
Wednesday dropped more than 100 points for the first time since
June, amid concerns about rising Treasury yields, and some weak
results. An after-hours announcement of job cuts for tech major and
Dow component Cisco Corp. (CSCO) in after-hours trade also weighed
on Asia.
"The old adage that fear sells couldn't be truer at the moment.
Chatter around a potential 1987-type crash or a looming market top
in U.S. equities is growing louder by the day," said Rivkin analyst
Tim Radford.
However, "as long as the big investors are confident in the U.S.
economy and the U.S. equity market, we shouldn't see an overly big
selloff from current levels in the near term," he said.
Losses in Tokyo surfaced across several sectors, coming as the
U.S. dollar (USDJPY) lost grip of the Yen98-level.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMTOY) slid 2.2%, Panasonic Corp.
(PCRFY) shed 2.7%, Fast Retailing Co. (FRCOY) gave up 2.6%, Daiwa
Securities Group Inc. (DSECY) lost 3%, and telecommunications major
Softbank Corp. (9984.TO) declined 2.8%.
In Sydney, gold miners climbed after the metal's prices rose 1%
overnight. Shares of Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCMGF) popped 3.2%, and
Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd. (KCN.AU) advanced 6.4%.
Shares of AMP Ltd. picked up 3.7% after the firm said first-half
underlying profit fell 9% but still came in above its projections
made earlier.
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