Asia Stocks Dented by Weaker U.S., Japan Earnings

Shares in Asia slipped Thursday on disappointment over weak earnings in Japan and worries about the health of U.S. consumer spending.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average slid 0.4%, Korea's Kospi was down 0.1% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.5%.

China's Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.6%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index sank 0.4%.

The common theme in the pullback all across the Asia-Pacific region was weaker-than-expected earnings by major U.S. companies. Analysts had been hoping for a revival in consumer spending that could lift the broader U.S. economy.

"The Asian market is following after the U.S. market yesterday," said Alex Wijaya, a senior sales trader at CMC Markets in Singapore. "Analysts are mainly looking to consumer spending, labor and inflation data, so weaker earnings from Macy's and Disney are weighing on markets in general."

In Japan, stocks were falling after several companies reported weak earnings results. Toyota Motor Corp. lost 3% and Bridgestone Corp. sank 6% after posting losses in recent sales and profits, for instance.

Meanwhile, shares of Nissan Motor Co. were down 1.8% as it considers buying a one-third stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for about 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion). The deal would make Nissan the largest shareholder of Mitsubishi Motors.

In China, investors were concerned about regulators' increased scrutiny of the initial public offering process. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would improve delisting rules to protect investors, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

More firms have recently been going public in China by combining with already-listed shell companies, a process known as " backdoor listing." Shares of two possible takeover targets—Zhejiang Mizuda Printing & Dyeing Group Co. and Citic Guoan Information Industry Co.—fell 2.7% and 2.2%, respectively, on worries that such potential deals could be stalled by stricter regulation.

"Recent official announcements show that the regulator will lean towards a more conservative stance," said Zheng Chunming, an analyst at Capital Securities. "The market is expected to correct further."

One bright spot was the energy sector. Australian oil producers Rio Tinto Ltd. and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. rose 0.5% and 1.9%, respectively, after U.S. oil prices rallied overnight to a fresh 2016 high on a drop in U.S. crude oil supplies. In Hong Kong, PetroChina Co. Ltd. rose 0.6% and Cnooc Ltd. gained 1.1%.

Elsewhere, analysts largely expect the Philippine's central bank to hold its benchmark interest rate at 4% during a monetary policy meeting late Thursday.

The Philippines' stock benchmark, the PSE Index, was down 0.6% Thursday, denting this week's 5% gain. Stocks had surged earlier in the week after unofficial election results showed presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte headed for victory.

The price of Brent crude oil was recently down slightly at $47.20 per barrel.

Kosaku Narioka and Yifan Xie contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 12, 2016 00:15 ET (04:15 GMT)

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