Asian shares were subdued on Thursday after Fitch downgraded U.S. sovereign debt sparking profit-taking, with investors now shifting focus to Bank of England’s rate decision and earnings from Apple and Amazon.
Both S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures added 0.2%, following a heavy wave of selling on Wall Street overnight.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) slipped 0.2%, having also suffered a colossal drop of 2.3% just a day earlier. That compared with a 5.4% monthly gain in July.
Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) fell 1.1%, bringing the losses so far in August to 2.5%, giving back some of the 7.5% surge seen a month earlier.
The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds (JGB) rose to 0.65% on Thursday, the highest since April 2014, after the Bank of Japan loosened its grip on yield curve control last week.
Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) were 0.2% higher while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (.HSI) was mostly flat. A private survey showed China’s services activity expanded at a faster place in July.
Overnight, Nasdaq and S&P 500 posted their biggest declines since February and April, respectively, after a blistering July driven by better-than-expected earnings and hopes of a soft landing for the U.S. economy
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