SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific markets fell on Thursday after a two-day slump on Wall Street.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.78% in early trade, while Topix fell 1.93%.
Australian S&P / ASX 200 down 0.48%.
In Korea, Kospi slipped 0.81% while Kosdak fell 1.09%.
Samsung Electronics reported that its operating profit for the first quarter of 2022 increased by almost 50% over a year earlier. Memory chip and smartphone maker posted an estimated 14.1 trillion won ($ 11.6 billion) in profits, it said in its earnings guidance.
The company’s stock was basically flat.
Nasdaq and Hong Kong-listed JD.com have announced that Xu Lei will immediately replace founder Richard Liu as CEO of the operating company. Liu will be chairman of the board of directors, and Xu will be an executive director.
Last year, Liu moved away from day-to-day activities, and Juke was elected JD president.
According to the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India will continue its monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
In the US overnight, major stock indices fell for a second day as investors reacted to Fed guidance on tightening monetary policy.
The Fed meeting minutes showed that officials wanted to shrink the balance sheet to $ 95 billion per month. Interest rates are expected to rise even faster.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144.67 points, or 0.42%, to 34,496.51. The S&P 500 fell 0.97% to 4,481.15 on Tuesday, and the Nasdaq Composite fell another 2.22% to 13,888.82 after falling nearly 2.3% on Tuesday.
The 10-year Treasury yield reached a three-year high above 2.65% on Wednesday and ended at 2.5863%.
On the economic front, U.S. weekly unemployment claims data will be released in the U.S. on Thursday morning
In Asia, both crude benchmarks rose more than 1% on Thursday morning.
US crude futures traded up 1.41% at .5 97.59 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 1.47% to 2 102.56 a barrel.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, last traded at 99.540.
The Japanese yen traded at 123.68 per dollar, while the Australian dollar was at 7 0.7504, slightly weaker than yesterday’s level.
