SHANGHAI, CHINA – MARCH 01: Skyscrapers stand at the Pudong Lujiazui Financial District on March 1, 2022 in Shanghai, China.
Xiao Yang | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were largely lower Friday, after Wall Street benchmarks Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 suffered their worst day in nearly two months on downbeat Microsoft earnings forecast and Meta results.
Traders in Asia assessed a slate of economic data from the region.
Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for October came in at 50.3, according to the private survey, beating median estimate of 49.7 in a Reuters poll of economists, and rebounding from September’s 49.3.
A reading below 50 shows contraction in manufacturing, while one above that indicates expansion.
China’s CSI 300 jumped 0.16%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.74%.
Australia’s third-quarter producer prices index climbed 3.9% year on year, sharply lower than 4.8% reading in the previous quarter, according to data from Australian Bureau of Statistics on Friday. Quarter on quarter, the index rose 0.9% compared with a 1% rise in previous quarter.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 1% lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell more than 2%, while the broad-based Topix dropped 1.33%. The Bank of Japan maintained its benchmark policy rate at 0.25% on Thursday.
In South Korea, the blue chop Kospi lost 0.19% and the Kosdaq index declined 1.47%.
Taiwan Weighted Index lost 1.51%, as Typhoon Kong-rey, the largest storm to hit the island in nearly 30 years, wreaked havoc.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes dropped.
The S&P 500 tumbled 1.86% to finish at 5,705.45 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.76% to close at 18,095.15 — both recorded their biggest one-day losses since Sept. 3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.9% to end at 41,763.46.
That marked the final trading day of a choppy month on Wall Street, with the 30-stock Dow recording monthly losses of 1.3%, S&P 500 declining 1% and the Nasdaq slipping 0.5%, amid heightened uncertainty ahead of the U.S. Presidential election and the Federal Reserve’s rate decision next week.
—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Brian Evans contributed to this report.
