Asian stocks plunge again after latest U.S. sell-off

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A man walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. Asian shares have opened lower and are tracking the overnight plunge on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 1,000 points as a weeklong market swoon continued. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A man walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. Asian shares have opened lower and are tracking the overnight plunge on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 1,000 points as a weeklong market swoon continued. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Wall Street’s woes have spread to Asia again.

Stocks in the region plunged Friday, racking up more losses in a brutal week for global markets.

Major indexes in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai sank more than 3% in morning trading.

The latest trouble for Asian markets followed more grim news from Wall Street. The Dow closed down 4.1%Thursday after another volatile trading session.

It was the second time in history that the Dow has lost more than 1,000 points in a single day. The other time was Monday.

The Nikkei is now down 12% from its peak in late January. That means that like the Dow and some European markets, it’s in correction territory — a decline of 10% or more from a recent high.

Experts generally agree that the U.S. and other major economies are in good shape. But investors are worried about inflation and the possibility that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates faster than previously anticipated in order to rein it in.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit a four-year high on Thursday. Rising yields in the U.S. government bond market are a decent indicator of fears about inflation.

And if they stay high, they will continue to set a “pessimistic tone” for Asian markets, said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at stock broker IG Group.

CNN

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