Negativity on Wall Street flowed through to Asian markets on Friday, with regional stock indexes tracking moderately lower in early trade amid declines in the technology sector.
The Nikkei 225 slipped 0.17 percent as semiconductor companies traded lower while financials and utilities rose.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index edged down by 0.3 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was lower by 0.21 percent.
Greater China markets also recorded moderate declines, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shedding 0.49 percent. On the mainland, the Shanghai composite lost 0.61 percent.
Semiconductor companies in the region traded lower after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the largest contract chipmaker in the world, said Thursday it was forecasting second-quarter revenue to come in between $7.8 billion and $7.9 billion, below a Wall Street estimate of $8.8 billion.
Morgan Stanley attributed TSMC’s weak guidance to order reductions from Apple iPhone processors. On Friday, TSMC shares tumbled 5.93 percent, dragging Taiwan’s Taiex lower by 1.53 percent.
In Japan, Tokyo Electron and Advantest declined 2.52 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Samsung Electronic slid 1.36 percent and chipmaker SK Hynix tumbled 3.41 percent.
U.S. stocks closed moderately lower on Thursday, with the technology sector coming under pressure following TSMC’s weak guidance. Apple, for which TSMC is a supplier, fell 2.8 percent amid declines in other U.S. semiconductor stocks.
Investors also focused on higher U.S. bond yields after the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose above 2.9 percent. The two-year yield traded near its highest levels in almost a decade on Thursday.
“There’s somewhat of a short attention span, with markets looking past [trade tensions], with the beige book and some of the data coming out just showing the U.S. to be relatively healthy. That might be impacting the yield curve more so than simmering trade tensions,” Alex Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
On the corporate front, earnings from China Unicom and China Mobile are expected on Friday, with Japan’s Tokyo Steel also due to report full-year results.
HSBC’s annual general meeting will also take place later in the day.
In currencies, the dollar firmed as U.S. bond yields rose. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, stood at 89.955. Against the yen, the dollar strengthened to trade at 107.67 at 9:36 a.m. HK/SIN.
The British pound was on the back foot after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney downplayed the possibility of a May interest rate hike. The currency traded around two-week lows at $1.4073.
Oil prices were steady on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was off by 0.12 percent at $68.21 per barrel, after touching a more than three-year high in the last session. Brent crude futures edged down to trade at $73.69.
Among individual movers, shares of Australia’s AMP edged higher by 0.23 percent. It said CEO Craig Meller would step down immediately following the company’s testimony at an Australian inquiry. AMP apologized for “misconduct and failures in regulator disclosures.”
