Wall Street effect on Japanese equities. After the heavy losses suffered by the US stock exchange, the Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo stock exchange closed down by 1.44%.
From Japan’s macro front, the December trade balance numbers have been released. Imports rose 20.6% year over year, slightly below Reuters expectations of a 22.4% increase. Exports grew by 11.5%, more than the 10.1% expected. The result was a trade deficit of 1.45 trillion yen (the equivalent of $11.27 billion) for Japan.
Asian stock markets are paying for fears of a recession that led the S&P 500 index to report its worst session since December 15 last year.
The index slipped by 1.56%. The Dow Jones fell more than 613 points (-1.81%) while the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.24%, breaking the bullish trail of the previous seven consecutive sessions.
The disappointing US retail sales figure and the slowdown in producer price index inflation rekindled fears of an oncoming recession in the States. Fears that led the rates on 10-year US Treasuries to capitulate to the lowest since September, at 3.33%.
At the moment, futures on the main US stock indexes confirm the negative trend on Wall Street: those on the Dow Jones are down by 0.16%, those on the S&P 500 are down 0.13%, those on the Nasdaq are little moved, moving below the parity.
However, the equity trend in Asia is mixed, with the Sydney Stock Exchange up 0.57% and Seoul +0.37%. The stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shanghai showed little movement, with variations equal to -0.09% and +0.22%.