Asian shares down across the board on U.S. jitters

Investing.com - Asian shares fell across the board on Friday, taking a cue from a nervous Wall Street as political woes for President Donald Trump imperil his tax cut and infrastructure spending plans.

Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.10%, while South Korea's Kopsi edged down 0.21%.

Other markets in Asia fell with the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.72%. In China, the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.20% an the Hong Kong Hang Seng index eased 0.71. In China, data on house prices for July showed a 9.7% rise, compared with a 10.2% gain posted in June.

Wynn Macau saw its stock fall 2.23% after Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Wynn resorts reported a profit of HKD 1.59 billion (USD 203.47 million) for the first half of the year, above the HKD 1.1 billion recorded for the same period a year ago.

Overnight, U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, as the recent controversies engulfing U.S. President Donald Trump raised concerns that his pro-growth policies could be delayed, offsetting upbeat reports indicating the economy continued to strengthen.

U.S. stocks pared early session gains, as rumours swirled that National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn was set to resign, over the president’s failure to denounce white supremacist violence in Charlottesville over the weekend.

A White official, however, quashed the rumours, saying Cohn “is focused on his responsibilities as NEC Director and any reports to the contrary are 100% false.”

Losses in U.S. stocks continued, as traders questioned whether the recent backlash that led to end of the White House council on manufacturing and the Strategic and Policy reform, would deter members of Congress from working with the President to introduce his pro-growth policies.

The political upheaval in Washington overshadowed initial jobs and manufacturing data that topped forecasts.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 232,000 for the week ended Aug. 12, the Labor Department said. That beat economists’ forecasts of a just 4,000 decline.

On the manufacturing front, the Federal Reserve bank of Philadelphia said that its Philly Fed manufacturing index rose to a seasonally adjusted 18.9 for August, compared with consensus estimates of 18.5.

On the corporate earnings front, better-than-expected earnings from Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:NYSE:WMT) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holdings Ltd (NYSE:BABA) failed to lift sentiment on the broader market, as the latter’s share price rose nearly 3% on the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower at 21,750. The S&P 500 closed 1.54% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6221.91, down 1.94%.

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