Asian markets headed for their worst week in a month and a half on Friday as disappointing U.S. data and profits weighed on investor sentiment.
The Nikkei 225 index in Japan fell marginally as of 9.30AM Bangkok time after March core inflation came in at 3.1%, unchanged from February. This marks the second consecutive month of declining inflation, which reached a 41-year high of 4.3% in January.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.30%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.55%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.34% down, meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite in mainland China dropped 0.22%.
Overnight in the United States, all three major indexes dropped as investors reacted negatively to a mixed bag of corporate earnings, including disappointing results from Tesla, as well as figures showing an increase in Americans filing for unemployment benefits and a decrease in manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region to its lowest level in nearly three years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8%. The S&P 500 index dropped by 0.6%.
In the wake of other indications that the world’s largest economy is decelerating, the data pushed Brent crude futures, a leading indicator of global activity, down 2.4% for their steepest one-day decline in five weeks.
