A woman uses her mobile phone as she walks past the logo of Japan’s telecommunications giant SoftBank in Tokyo on December 25, 2013.
Toru Yamanaka | Afp | Getty Images
Tech conglomerate SoftBank plunged more than 10% Friday amid losses across the region’s key benchmarks, after U.S. tech stocks lost ground and investors’ hopes dimmed of a December rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.57% at the open, while the Topix index lost 0.72%. Other tech stocks on the index fell, with Advantest losing more than 9%, Tokyo Electron retreating nearly 6%, Lasertec falling nearly 5%, and Renesas Electron down 1.95%.
Japan’s core inflation in October rose at its sharpest rate since July, in line with market estimates on Friday, supporting the case for interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.
South Korea’s Kospi index plunged 4.09%, and the small-cap Kosdaq retreated 3.01%. Kospi’s heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix tumbled as much as 4% and 9%, respectively.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.88% at the open, while the Hang Seng Tech index was 2.33% lower. Tech major Baidu stumbled 6%, Xiaomi Corp declined 4.51%, and Tencent traded 2.25% lower.
Hang Seng auto stocks also took a hit. Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD fell 2.68%, while Nio and Li Auto dropped nearly 6% and about 2%, respectively.
The mainland’s CSI 300 was down 1.13%.
Overnight in the U.S., Oracle and AMD were among the first AI plays to fall into the red on the session, followed by Nvidia, which reversed gains and closed nearly 3% lower.
Stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data renewed doubts about whether the central bank will lower its benchmark overnight rate. Traders were pricing roughly a 40% chance of a quarter-point cut next month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a setback for investors hoping for lower borrowing costs.
On Thursday stateside, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.16%, down from a 2.6% advance at one point in the session.
Other major indexes also slipped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.84%. The S&P 500 shed 1.56%, despite rising as much as 1.9% earlier in the day.
—CNBC’s Liz Napolitano, Pia Singh, and Alex Harring contributed to this report.
