Asian stocks fall as growth jitters persist, Nikkei rebound fades

Investing.com– Most Asian stocks fell on Thursday with a rebound in Japanese markets running dry amid persistent concerns over slowing economic growth and higher interest rates, with technology stocks seeing an extended rout. 

Regional markets took a negative lead-in from a weak overnight session on Wall Street, as a rebound from multi-month lows faltered. U.S. stock index futures also fell in Asian trade. 

Concerns over an economic slowdown in China also weighed after underwhelming trade data from the country on Wednesday.

Nikkei, TOPIX back in red as recovery stalls 

Japan’s and indexes moved in a flat-to-low range on Thursday as a rebound over the past two days ran dry. The two had fallen sharply in early morning trade, but pared a bulk of their losses. 

Japanese stocks had rebounded from an over 10% rout in the past two days after some Bank of Japan officials attempted to downplay the bank’s hawkish outlook on interest rates.

But a of BOJ policymakers, released on Thursday, showed members of the central bank still saw room for more rate hikes, and that interest rates would have to reach around 1% to attain a level neutral to the economy. 

An unexpectedly hawkish tone from the BOJ was the main driver of a recent rout in Japanese markets, which saw the Nikkei and the TOPIX enter bear market territory on Monday.

Some underwhelming earnings also weighed, with tech investment giant SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:) falling nearly 4% after it clocked an unexpected loss in the June quarter. 

Asian tech weakens tracking US peers 

Major Asian technology stocks also fell tracking weak signals from their U.S. peers, especially in the chipmaking sector. U.S. chip stocks saw two days of steep losses following underwhelming earnings from Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:). 

South Korea’s shed 0.9%, while Hong Kong’s index drifted lower. 

Taiwan’s TSMC (TW:)- the world’s biggest contract chipmaker- fell 2%. 

Chinese stocks dip, trade data underwhelms 

China’s and indexes fell 0.2% each on Thursday, extending recent declines and remaining at over five-month lows.

Trade data on Wednesday continued to paint a dour picture of the economy, as China’s trade surplus shrank much more than expected in July. Exports unexpectedly shrank after the European Union imposed steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, while China’s imports of and oil also fell sharply. 

Broader Asian markets were mostly negative. Australia’s fell 0.3%.

Futures for India’s index pointed to a positive open after the index and the rebounded sharply from recent losses on Wednesday.

Focus is on a meeting of , where the central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged.