Nikkei 225, Kospi, Nifty 50, China retail sales

Asia-Pacific markets retreated on Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street as technology stocks continued to come under pressure and doubts about a Fed rate cut grew.

Japan’s reference point Nikkei 225 While the index lost 1.85%, Topix lost 1.03%. Technology stocks led the decline in the index, with the support of technology holdings. Rakuten Group Down 6.57%, semiconductor test equipment maker cutting edge fell 5.27% and Lazertec It decreased to 3.97%.

Japanese giant SoftBank experienced its third consecutive day of decline, losing as much as 8 percent in early trading after announcing on Tuesday that it was selling all its shares. Nvidia.

South Korea’s Kospi index fell 2.29%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.42%. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics fell more than 3 percent SK HynixShares of the company, which supplies memory chips to Nvidia, fell 5%.

south korean to win It increased by 0.72% against 1.460.0. dollarThat’s after the finance minister said on Friday that the country’s foreign exchange authorities would consult with major market players, including the national pension fund and major exporters, on ways to stabilize the won, according to Reuters.

According to the report, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol told senior economic officials that steps should be taken to overcome the structural mismatch in US dollar supply and demand due to growing concerns about volatility in the foreign exchange market.

of Australia S&P/ASX 200 It lost 1.58%.

of hong kong Hang Seng Index It lost 1.52% at the open, while the mainland CSI 300 index fell 0.64%.

China will release retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment data for October today. Fixed asset investment, which includes real estate, fell an unexpected 0.5% in September.

Overnight in the US, all three major averages closed lower as investors continued to sell shares of technology companies, particularly companies in the AI ​​trade, on concerns about their valuations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 797.60 points, or 1.65%, to settle at 47,457.22, reaching record highs set in the previous session. The S&P 500 index lost 1.66 percent and finished at 6,737.49 points.

The broad-based index saw notable declines in the information technology and communications services sectors, led by Disney, falling nearly 8% in the fiscal fourth quarter on mixed results. Nasdaq Composite fell 2.29% to close at 22,870.36 points. Along with the three major averages, the small-cap Russell 2000 index also had its worst day since October 10.

Recent remarks from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s colleagues point to many concerns about whether the central bank will make its third consecutive policy easing at its Dec. 9-10 meeting.

“Given my baseline outlook, it would probably be appropriate to keep policy rates at the current level for some time to offset inflation and employment risks in this highly uncertain environment,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins said recently. he said.

As a result, markets readjusted their expectations. While just a few days ago traders were pricing in at least a 2-in-1 chance of a quarter-point cut, it turned out to be a coin toss, according to futures market readings compiled by CME Group. FedWatch tool.

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.