Asian stocks extend declines amid fresh slowdown fears, trade tension

• Asian shares decline to a monthly low while Japan’s NIKKEI on its way to register the biggest daily loss in six-months.
• The US-EU trade tussle joins unearthed recession concerns for the US.
• The US-China headlines have also been downbeat while bond yields stay under pressure.

With the US levying fresh tariffs on the European Union’s (EU) goods worth of $7.5 billion, not to forget a downbeat print of the US ADP Employment Change renewing calls for the US recession, Asian stocks extend their previous south-run to the lowest in nearly a month.

The MSCI’s index of Asia Pacific shares ex-Japan stays around 0.3% in loss while Japan’s NIKKEI drops more than 2.0%.

HANG SENG also declines nearly 0.5% as the White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro recently said that the recently escalated unrest in Hong Kong becomes the context for the US-China trade talks for now. On the other hand, Chief Editor of China’s Global Times criticized the US behavior, signaling a negative start to the trade talks, to be up during October 10-11.

Australia’s ASX 200 nosedives to 6,493, 2.2% loss, amid disappointing trade balance data and pessimism surrounding global trade relations while New Zealand’s NZX50 plummets 1.20% by the press time of pre-European open on Thursday.

Moving on, India’s BSE SENSEX drops 0.60% as post-holiday trading follows global clues whereas South Korea’s KOSPI is 1.0% on the red side following North Korea’s claim of testing a new submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Overall market risk tone remains sluggish with the US 10-year Treasury yield taking rounds to 1.6%.

Investors will now focus on a slew of Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) numbers form the EU, the UK and the US ahead of Friday’s key employment stats from the US. Further to note, traders will also seek clues of slowdown in today’s Fedspeak.