Stock Pullback Extends to Asia

By Ese Erheriene 

A global stock pullback moved into Asia on Thursday, with most markets down modestly following similar-sized declines overnight in Europe and the U.S., pausing what has been a big month of gains for many indexes.

Earnings weighed on U.S. stocks on Wednesday, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, AT&T and Boeing.

And with the European Central Bank's meeting looming later Thursday, "Asian bourses are likely to tread cautiously," said Oversea-Chinese Banking. The European Central Bank is expected to announce a slowed pace of bond buying for 2018.

But Japanese stocks rebounded some after a last-hour selloff Wednesday resulted in the Nikkei Stock Average ending its record 16-day winning streak. The index was recently up 0.1%, though gains of up to 0.4% were seen earlier.

The yen rebounded some overnight and extended that move in Asian trading, with the dollar falling to Yen113.45 from Yen113.74 in late New York action. The cap the currency move put on Japanese stocks helped offset gains seen by some financial names in anticipation of further U.S. interest-rate increases. Daiwa Securities jumped 5% and Nomura nearly 2%.

Declines in Asian stocks were modest, with New Zealand seeing one of the biggest declines at 0.3% for the NZX 50.

That index, which yesterday also lagged behind broad gains Wednesday and ended its 15-day winning streak, was again pressured by heavily weighted Fletcher Building. After falling 3.6% on another profit warning, it was down an additional 1.8% Thursday.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong stocks reversed some of their Wednesday-afternoon rally, with the Hang Seng Index falling an early 0.1%.

Oil prices were down slightly in Asian trading on Thursday after a mixed session Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories surprisingly rose slightly last week, sending the WTI U.S. benchmark lower.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2017 22:41 ET (02:41 GMT)

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