Stock markets across Asia experienced significant declines on Monday morning, following sharp drops in major global indices last week.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 plummeted approximately 6%, while the Topix index fell by more than 7%. This downturn comes in the wake of disappointing jobs data released in the US on Friday, which raised concerns about a potential recession in the world’s largest economy.
The Japanese yen has strengthened against the US dollar following the Bank of Japan’s recent interest rate hike, which has made Tokyo stocks more expensive for international investors.
In Taiwan, the main share index recorded a decline of 6.7%, impacted heavily by a drop of over 6% in chip-making giant TSMC. South Korea’s Kospi index also fell by more than 4%.
Conversely, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index experienced only a slight decrease of 0.3% during morning trading, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange showed minor gains.
On Friday, US stock markets saw a steep decline after the official jobs report revealed employers added only 114,000 jobs in July—significantly below expectations. This data has sparked fears that the robust job growth in the US may be waning and raised speculation regarding the timing and magnitude of potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
