Asian stocks down after US sell-off
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Last Updated at 05:46
| Market index | Current value | Trend | Variation | % variation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikkei 225 | 14119.32 | Down | -499.81 | -3.42% |
| ASX All Ords | 5114.10 | Down | -87.80 | -1.69% |
| Hang Seng | 21534.01 | Down | -501.41 | -2.28% |
| SSE Composite | 2033.08 | Down | -16.83 | -0.82% |
| SSE SE 50 | 1477.35 | Down | -17.14 | -1.15% |
| BSE Sensex | 20056.88 | Down | -152.38 | -0.75% |
Asian stocks have fallen, tracking a sell-off in the US, amid worries of a slowdown in the US recovery and slower growth in emerging economies.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.6%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 2.3% and South Korea's Kospi declined 1.6%.
This follows declines of more than 2% in both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes in the US on Monday.
Investor morale has been hurt by weak factory data from both the US and China - the world's two biggest economies.
On Monday, a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), a trade group of purchasing managers, showed that US manufacturing barely grew last month.
The ISM's index of manufacturing activity fell to 51.3 in January from 56.5 in December.
It was the lowest reading since May, triggering concerns that the US economy might be starting to weaken.
Meanwhile, official data released over the weekend showed that China's manufacturing activity hit a five-month low in January.
"The data was very weak across the board - it's hard to find any good news in there. It looks like a general slowdown," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management.
"Combine that with the fact emerging market currencies continue to sell off, and things don't look too good for the market now."
'Reset expectations'Fears of a slowdown in the US economic recovery were fanned further by a fall in car sales - which fell 3% in January from a year ago.
General Motors saw its sales tumble 12% in January, while Ford's deliveries dropped 7%.
The decline saw shares of both carmakers falling by more than 2% on Monday.
"Investors had expectations going into 2014 of a much stronger US economic recovery than actually what we're seeing and we've had to reset our expectations,'' said Chris Gaffney, a senior market strategist at EverBank.
At the same time, many analysts have predicted that global markets are due for a correction, not least because of the sharp rise they saw over the past few months.
"This is the beginning of the correction that we have been waiting for," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
'Carried away'After a lacklustre start to trading on Monday, the Dow Jones finished down 326 points at 15,372.8.
The broader-based S&P 500 fell 40.70 to 1,741.89 points, and the Nasdaq ended down 106.92 points at 3,996.96.
Telecommunications stocks also sank, with AT&T down 4.1% and Verizon 3.4% lower.
Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, said a stock market correction was inevitable after the way investors drove up prices during 2013.
"We're in a modest-growth, modest-inflation environment," he said. "People got carried away with a perceived acceleration of the economy."
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