Stock market today: Asia shares decline as faltering Chinese economy sets off global slide
Asian shares have declined amid worries over discouraging data on China, as well as over the future of the U.S. economy
TOKYO — Asian shares declined Wednesday amid worries over discouraging data on China, as well as over the future of the U.S. economy.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 1.3% in afternoon trading to 31,805.37. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dove 1.6% to 7,192.10. South Korea's Kospi dipped 1.6% to 2,528.73. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.5% to 18,309.42, and the Shanghai Composite lost 0.5% to 3,159.71.
New Zealand’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5.5% on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s monetary policy committee said the headline inflation rate had declined, but core inflation remained too high. The committee said it would take a prolonged period of subdued spending to reduce inflation pressure. The New Zealand dollar was little changed on the news, trading at around U.S. $0.6.
“A recent set of disappointing economic data out of China has not been encouraging for the region," said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.
Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities, believes that strong U.S. consumer spending could be momentary and run out of steam.
“This is perhaps largely due to the huge sale efforts that took place both online from Amazon and at major stores in general. It could be the case that all of that retail sales gain completely disappears in August. Remember, we did say this would be a strong result, but possibly the last of the good retail sales numbers for quite some time,” he said.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 slumped 1.2% for one of its worst drops since the spring after data showed a deepening slump for the world's second-largest economy. The Dow
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