Equity
Shares in Asia declined on Thursday morning following an overnight slip on Wall Street after the closely-watched 10-year Treasury yield touched its lowest in more than a year.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 1.78 percent in early trade. The Topix index also fell 1.73 percent. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.89 percent. Australia’s ASX 200 slipped 0.33 percent in morning trade.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 32.14 points to close at 25,625.59 and the S&P 500 shed 0.5 percent to finish at 2,805.37. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.6 percent lower at 7,643.38.
On the U.S.-China trade front, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to resume negotiations with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Thursday, in a bid to strike a deal on trade.
Currency & Oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.967 after seeing highs above 96.8 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.29 against the dollar after seeing lows around 110.6 in the previous session. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7079 following a steep decline from the $0.714 handle yesterday.
Oil prices declined in the morning of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract slipping 0.21 percent to $67.69 per barrel and U.S. crude futuresfalling 0.3 percent to $59.23 per barrel.
