Asian shares follow Wall Street’s sharp losses

Tokyo — Asian stock markets skidded on Tuesday, extending sharp losses on Wall Street as technology firms bore the brunt of concern about slackening demand.

The dollar sagged after weak US data further sapped confidence in the currency.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.9%.

The Shanghai composite index retreated 1%, Australian stocks lost 0.9% and tech-heavy South Korean shares dropped 0.8%.

In Seoul, Samsung Electronics fell 1.8% and SK Hynix dropped 2.8%, while Japan’s Tokyo Electron was down 1.4%, Advantest lost 1.2% and Sony shed 2.6%.

Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.9%. Shares of Nissan Motor tumbled 4.3% after its chair, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested on Monday for alleged financial misconduct. He will be fired from the board this week.

“By under-reporting his corporate salary, he basically deprived Nissan’s shareholders of opportunities to judge if the amount of his salary was appropriate,” said Toru Ibayashi, executive director of Wealth Management at UBS Securities Japan. “This incident will make investors review if Japanese corporate governance is working.”

US stocks came under heavy selling on Monday, with the Nasdaq composite index tumbling 3%, as investors dumped Apple, internet and other technology shares. Conflicting signals between the US and China on their trade dispute added to caution.

“The drop in US stocks will cut short any attempt by equity markets to mount a sustained bounce. Investor sentiment has been subdued by lingering weakness in US technology shares,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo.

Fear that corporate earnings growth has peaked, amid rising borrowing costs, slowing global economic momentum and international trade tension, has triggered a shakeout in stocks over the past two months, with trillions of dollars wiped off equities in a particularly torrid October month.

In currencies, the dollar struggled at a nearly two-week low against a basket of currencies.

The greenback was hit after data released on Monday showed US home builder sentiment recorded its steepest one-month drop in more than four-and-a-half years in November.

The dollar has also been weighed down after Fed vice-chair Richard Clarida and Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan late last week raised concern about a potential global slowdown.

The dollar has rallied strongly this year, buoyed by three Fed rate hikes and a robust economy, although some expect the bull run may be nearing an end.

With long-term US treasury yields slipping to a seven-week low of 3.052% in the wake of weaker stocks and US housing data, the dollar index against a basket of six major currencies hovered near 96.120, an 11-day low plumbed on Monday.