Asian stocks dropped on Thursday following losses in key Wall Street indexes overnight as investors waited for the results of the US midterm elections and consumer inflation report, while mood in the market took a nosedive due to the possible collapse of a major cryptocurrency exchange.
As of 9.33 A.M. (Thai time), the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 2.36%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.77%. After China released its latest GDP figures, the yuan fell past the 7.25 mark against the US dollar.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan lost 1.13%, while the Kospi in South Korea dipped 0.46%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.42% lower.
As Republican victories in the midterm elections seemed more modest than some had predicted, stocks ended down on Wall Street overnight. Key races were still too close to call, but the Republicans were still the favorites to take control of the House.
After a steep decline on Wednesday, as Binance scrapped its plans to acquire troubled exchange FTX.com (which may soon go bankrupt), the price of bitcoin stabilized at roughly $16,000. Shares of cryptocurrency-related Asian companies were put under pressure as a result of the move, following the sharp decline of their US peers.
