Asian markets retreat after tech losses hobble Wall St
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Asian markets mostly fell Friday following a broadly negative lead from Wall Street, where tech giants led a sell-off on profit-taking, while traders are on intervention watch as the yen retreats back towards a three-decade low.
A batch of worse-than-forecast US data provided further signs that the world’s number one economy was softening but that was not enough to help push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to more record highs.
The readings showed more people claiming for unemployment benefit than estimated, housing starts falling and a key gauge of business confidence for June well down from May.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kashkari said it could take a year or two to bring inflation back down to the central bank’s two percent target, echoing his colleagues’ warnings that they wanted to take their time before cutting borrowing costs.
The economic figures boosted int
