The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 500 points on Wall Street overnight, erasing its gains for 2018.
Asian markets saw a sell-off on early Wednesday following a plunge on Wall Street overnight.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.43 percent in the morning while the Topix index shed 1.54 percent. South Korea’s Kospi also saw losses in early trade as it declined by 1.31 percent minutes into its market open.
Stocks in Australia saw sustained weakness in the morning. The ASX 200 fell 1.18 percent, with almost all sectors seeing losses. The heavily weighted financial subindex shed 0.7 percent.
The mainland Chinese markets are set to open at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 551.80 points to close at 24,465.64 while the S&P 500 lost 1.8 percent to finish the trading day stateside at 2,641.89.
Following Tuesday’s stock market rout, the Dow and S&P 500 are now down 1.03 percent and 1.19 percent, respectively, for 2018.
The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, shed 1.7 percent to 6,908.82 on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s declines came a day after members of the popular « FAANG » stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet — all closed in bear market territory, down more than 20 percent from their 52-week highs.
In the oil markets, crude prices nosedived by nearly 7 percent on Tuesday after seeing four days of gains.
U. S. West Texas Intermediate settled Tuesday’s session lower by $3.77, or 6.6 percent, at $53.43. The contract fell as low as $52.77 on Tuesday, its weakest price level since October 2017. In the morning of Asian trading hours on Wednesday, WTI futures saw a partial recovery, rising 0.15 percent at $53.51 per barrel.
Brent crude dropped $4.43, or 6.6 percent, to $62.36 a barrel by 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday, after earlier dropping to $61.71, a low going back to December 2017.
Crude futures fell to fresh session lows on Tuesday after President Donald Trump issued a statement saying the United States stands by Saudi Arabia following mounting criticism on the kingdom after the killing last month of journalist and U. S. resident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir admitted that the slaying was a « tremendous mistake, » but denied that the crown prince had ordered the killing.
U. S. crude prices have now dropped as much as 31 percent from a four-year high last month. Brent has tumbled nearly 29 percent from its recent high.
Oil-related stocks in Asia fell on Wednesday after Tuesday’s sharp decline in oil prices. Australia’s Santos shed almost 4 percent while Beach Energy plunged nearly 9 percent.
In Japan, Inpex fell nearly 3 percent while JXTG shed over 3 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration declined by 2.31 percent. The losses also spread to South Korea’s oil companies, with S-Oil falling more than 3 percent and SK Innovation seeing losses of about 2 percent.
The U. S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.836 after seeing an earlier high around the 96.89 handle.
The Japanese yen, widely seen as a safe haven currency, was at 112.76 against the greenback after seeing highs above 112.3 yesterday. The Australian dollar traded at $0.7217 after seeing highs above $0.729 in the previous session.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report.
