Shares are mostly lower in Asia after stocks pulled back from their recent record highs on Wall Street as bond yields fell and investors turned cautious.
Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Friday after stocks pulled back from their recent record highs on Wall Street as bond yields fell and investors turned cautious.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost nearly 2%. Shares fell in Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai but rose in Hong Kong.
U.S. futures declined and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.34%. On Thursday it fell to 1.30%, its lowest level since February. It recently was trading at 1.74%.
Traders have been shifting money into bonds in recent weeks, pulling down the benchmark yield, which is used to set rates on mortgages and many other kinds of loans.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.7% at 27,633.10 while the Kospi in South Korea declined 1.5% to 3,201.86.
In both countries, authorities have tightened pandemic precautions to counter fresh outbreaks of the coronavirus. Ramping up relatively loose restrictions, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ordered a state of emergency for Tokyo, to run through the July 23-Aug. 8 Olympics.
Investors are gauging the potential impact from COVID-19 variants stymying a resurgence in commerce and travel. Fans have been banned from the Tokyo Olympics following a state of emergency aimed at containing rising coronavirus infections in the capital.
