Asian Markets Spooked by Tightening White House Race
02 November 2016 - 2:20PM
Dow Jones News
Shares were sharply sold off across Asia on Wednesday, as a new
poll showing Republican candidate Donald Trump leading the U.S.
presidential race spooked investors.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 1.2% in early-morning
trade, opening at a seven-day low at 17238 points. Australia's
S&P/ASX traded 0.8% lower, having earlier hit a seven-week low.
Elsewhere, the Hang Seng Index was off 1.1% and Korea's Kospi was
down 0.8%.
"The market this morning is driven by the latest poll from
ABC/Washington Post and Asian equities are all lower," said Tareck
Horchani, deputy head of APAC sales trading at Saxo Markets.
Overnight, an ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll showed Mr.
Trump with a one-point advantage over Democrat Hillary Clinton,
leading 46% to 45%.
U.S. stocks broadly fell as investors pulled back from risk,
which spilled over into the Asian session. Mrs. Clinton is seen as
the more market-friendly candidate by many investors.
In Japan, financial and exporter stocks were particularly hard
hit as investors digested what a win for Mr. Trump would mean for
markets, given his stance on trade and economic policies. Among
individual shares, Sumitomo Mitsui shed 1.9% of its value,
Mitsubishi fell 1.7%, Suzuki was down 2.2% and Honda slipped
2.7%.
The wave of declines occurred despite strong manufacturing data
out of the U.S., Mr. Horchani said.
The Institute for Supply Management late on Tuesday said its
purchasing manufacturers index rose to 51.9 in October from 51.5 in
September, signaling that the U.S. manufacturing sector could be
stabilizing after two years of challenging conditions.
Meanwhile, persistent skepticism that the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold together their
production-cutting agreement continued to weigh on oil prices,
depressing the share prices of regional producers. In Australia,
Santos was down 2.6%, while Japan Petroleum was off 2.2%.
In one of the few bright spots, New Zealand's jobless rate fell
4.9% Wednesday to its lowest level in almost eight years in the
three months to September, Statistics New Zealand said Wednesday.
The Global Dairy Trade Price Index also soared to 11.4% from 1.4%
previously, boosting sentiment for New Zealand's dairy-producing
economy. Still, the country's main index followed the regional
trend, trading down 0.7%.
"The Kiwis posted some solid data," said Alex Wijaya, senior
sales trader at CMC Markets, in a note.
Looking ahead, the markets will be focusing on the U.S. Federal
Open Market Committee meeting on interest rates later in global
trading day. According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the likelihood
the Federal Reserve will announce a rate change is just 7.2%.
Anna Louie Sussman, Akane Otani and James Taranto contributed to
this article.
Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 01, 2016 23:05 ET (03:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.