Center street shibuya.
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly rebounded Friday, after Thursday’s sell-off saw some indexes in the region hit their lowest level in months.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the notable outlier, extending losses for an eighth straight day to 37,667.41, down 0.53%. The Topix lost 0.38% to close at 2,699.54, its lowest since April 26.
Chipmaker Renesas Electronics fell for a second straight day, plunging over 5% on Friday to lead losses in the index. This brought its share price to its lowest level since April.
Renesas saw a 29% drop in net profit for the first half of the year, with Nikkei reporting that President Hidetoshi Shibata admitted that the firm “misjudged demand for industrial equipment.” Unlike most Japanese companies, Renesas’ financial year starts on Jan. 1.
The sell-off on Thursday resulted in 760 billion yen ($4.9 billion) being wiped off its market capitalization in a single day.
Some Japanese automakers also fell, with Nissan down 3.88% after announcing dismal results for its first quarter ended June 30. Operating profit collapsed over 99% year on year, while net profit tumbled 72.9%.
Separately, Reuters reported that Honda will shutter a factory in China and halt production at another plant, intending to start producing more electric vehicles. Honda shares lost 0.28% on Friday.
In Asia, traders also assessed July inflation data out of Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, which is widely considered a leading indicator of nationwide trends.
Tokyo’s headline inflation slowed slightly to 2.2% in July from 2.3% in May, while its core inflation rate — which strips out prices of fresh food — remained unchanged at 2.2%, in line with expectations.
The so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of fresh food and energy and is watched by the Bank of Japan, fell to 1.5% from 1.8%.
The yen will also be closely watched, after it strengthened sharply against the dollar in the past week. The currency is currently trading at 153.9 against the greenback.
The Taiwan Weighted Index dropped 3.29% to end at 22,119.21 as markets resumed trading after being closed for two days due to a typhoon.
Heavyweights Hon Hai Precision Industry — known as Foxconn internationally — and chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company lost 4.71% and 5.62%, respectively.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.34% as of its final hour of trade, while mainland China’s CSI 300 closed 0.29% higher at 3,409.29.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.78% to end at 2,731.9, rebounding off a six-week low, while the small-cap Kosdaq was marginally up at 797.56.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.76%, finishing the day at 7,921.3.
Separately, Singapore’s monetary authority announced that it would keep its monetary policy steady, with no changes to its exchange rate settings for the Singapore dollar.
Unlike most economies, Singapore does not use interest rates to control its monetary policy, instead opting to use exchange rate settings to control the strength of the Singapore dollar.
Over in the U.S, traders continued to rotate out of tech, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite extending their losses by 0.51% and 0.93% respectively on Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%.
“There’s a changing of the guard happening on Wall Street. The AI stocks that led on the way up are now leading on the way down,” said Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments, adding that these movements are not uncommon during a bull market “great mini rotation.”
—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
