Most Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, following losses on Wall Street overnight after the release of a key U.S. labor report showing job openings dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years in February.
At 9:38 AM (Bangkok Time), the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was down marginally. The Nikkei 225 in Japan dipped 1.27%, while the services sector expanded for the seventh consecutive month.
On the other hand, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.23%.
Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong markets are closed for a holiday.
Overnight in the United States, all three major indices dropped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 ending four consecutive days of gains. The Dow fell by 0.59%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.58% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.52%.
The number of job openings in the United States dropped to its lowest level since May 2021 in February, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Labor Department. Total job openings dropped to 9.93 million in February, down over 600,000 from January and significantly lower than the 10.4 million predicted by FactSet.
The two-year Treasury yield climbed marginally after falling as much as 14 basis points in the US session as job openings fell. Bloomberg said that this increased confidence that the Federal Reserve is about to end its tightening campaign.
