By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tech shares led a selloff in stock markets around Asia, while the yen and U.S. bonds rebounded, as global investors struggled to find their footing in a wild week for markets.
Japan’s Nikkei share average was last down 1%, having earlier slumped as much as 2.5%, with chip-sector shares the biggest drag on the index. That left the Nikkei down more than 3% for the week, following Monday’s 12.4% plunge, despite the ensuing two-day rebound.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s tech-heavy stock benchmark sagged 2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares declined 0.8%.
“Today’s Asia session could be important, as many had bought the dip with the hope that we see real follow-through buying and the upside momentum building,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
“It’s clear that we have not been given all clear just yet.”
Wall Street futures were weak, with S&P 500 futures down 0.24% and Nasdaq futures off 0.14% following respective declines for the cash indexes of about 0.8% and 1.1% on Wednesday.
Pan-European STOXX 50 futures sagged 1.2%.
The yen generally benefits when market sentiment sours, and appreciated as much as 0.86% to 145.43 per dollar before last trading about 0.3% stronger at 146.17. The Swiss franc, another traditional haven, added 0.3% to 0/8592 per dollar.
The dollar-yen pair also tends to be sensitive to moves in long-term U.S. Treasury yields, which retraced about half of their overnight jump to 3.977% and last stood at 3.92% in Asian hours.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against the yen, franc, euro and three other major peers, was down slightly at 103.09, while the euro gained a touch to $1.0925.
Currencies, and the yen in particular, have been upended by a shift last week toward bets for steady interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan and aggressive cuts by the Federal Reserve, which helped send the dollar as low as 141.675 yen on Monday for the first time since the start of this year.
Weekly U.S. jobless claims data later in the day could prove market moving following soft monthly payrolls figures on Friday that exacerbated fears of a U.S. economic downturn.
Meanwhile, crude oil continued its rise following data the previous day that showed a bigger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude stockpiles.
Brent crude futures rose 0.3% to $78.56 a barrel, following Wednesday’s 2.4% jump. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.4% to $75.52, building on a 2.8% rally from overnight.
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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