Lower In Asia; JPY Weakness Helps Japan Avoid Peer Rout

Most Asia-Pac equity indices are lower at writing, largely tracking Wall St.’s rout on Thursday. Richly valued names across sectors and geographies broadly led losses, with spillover debate from the NY session re: highly-valued equities in a time of rising rates, doing the rounds in Asia.

• The Hang Seng brought up the rear amongst index peers, trading 3.6% lower at typing. Investors are continuing to shrug off multiple specifically-worded pledges from Chinese authorities and state media to support the development of “internet platform companies”, with the Hang Seng Tech Index sitting 5.0% worse off at typing, led by losses in Tencent (-4.5%), JD.com (-6.7%), and Bilbili (-9.0%). The selloff in China-based tech largely tracks a decline in the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index (-7.7%) on Thursday, with the move in the latter coming amidst notable weakness in tech and software-related names during the NY session.
• The Nikkei 225 bucked the broader negative trend, outperforming major equity index peers on its first day back from a three-day holiday, sitting 0.9% better off and operating at session highs at typing. Energy and utility equities saw the most gains, tracking gains in major energy benchmarks over the holiday period. Export-related names (such as automakers) caught a broad bid as well, with large-caps such as Fast Retailing (+1.6%) rising amidst another bout of JPY weakness. Overall, ~200 of the index’s 225 constituents are in the green at typing.
• U.S. e-mini equity index futures are virtually unchanged at writing, belying a 3.1% to 5.0% lower daily close on Thursday, led by losses in NASDAQ contracts. The overall move lower has erased virtually all post-FOMC gains, seeing the e-minis operate at ranges seen earlier in the week.