Asian stocks down following Wall Street’s weak lead

Asian equities were down again on Friday, following heavy losses from Wall Street in the previous session, with the economic calendar looking empty for the day.

Earlier in the day, the Tertiary Industry Activity index came in at minus 0.2 percent, while analysts forecasted a 0.2 percent increase.

The People's Bank of China said on Friday it released almost 2 trillion yuan in liquidity ahead to cope with cash demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

China’s consumer prices increased by 0.6%, compared to a 0.7% build seen month-over-month for January and at a 1.5% advance on yearly basis.

Producer prices notched up 4.3% year-over-year, meeting analysts’ expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished 1,032.89 points lower at 23,860.46 on Thursday. The S&P 500 eased 3.75 percent to 2,581. The Nasdaq was down 3.9 percent at 6,777.16.

Overnight, Congress failed to approve a two-year budget that would add $300 billion in government spending. Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked the vote arguing increasing fiscal spending was heavily criticized by Republicans during Obama era.

“The real problem here is that Republicans have completely changed now and they said a trillion dollar deficit was terrible under Obama, but it’s just fine if it’s a Republican,” said Sen. Paul.

A new vote is likely to take place on Friday in order to end a second government shutdown.

<<< Asian Stock Indexes at 07:50 GMT >>>

Australia ASX S&P -57.70 -0.96% 5,937.50

Shanghai Composite -132.20 -4.05% 3,129.85

Hong Kong Hang Seng -1,010.76 -3.32% 29,440.51

Japan Nikkei 225 -508.24 -2.32% 21,382.62

Taiwan TSEC 50 Index -156.77 -1.49% 10,371.75

<<< Next in Europe >>>

Attention will be directed to the United Kingdom. Industrial and manufacturing production figures for December are due for release at 09:30 GMT. Trade balance is also expected at that time.

Fort Financial Services