Stocks Around the World on October 4-5

Stocks in Asia-Pacific largely declined on October 5 following overnight losses on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling more than 2%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.19% to end its trading day at 27,822.12, as shares of Fast Retailing dropped 6.92%. The Topix index also fell 1.33% to close at 1,947.75. Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell more than 3% and briefly entered correction territory, declining more than 10% off its mid-September high.

In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 1.88% to finish its trading day at 2,962.17. 

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index defied the overall trend regionally as it rose around 0.5%, as of its final hour of trading. 

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.41% to 7,248.40. On October 5, the country’s central bank announced its decision to leave interest rates unchanged. 

Markets in mainland China are still closed for the holidays. 

U.S. stocks on October 4 

On October 4, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 323.54 points to close at 34,002.92, despite large gains in Merck. The S&P 500 declined 1.3% to 4,300.96. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.1% to 14,255.48.

Shares of large tech companies like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon,  Microsoft, were lower on October 4 as investors eyed bond yields. 

Facebook suffered losses on Monday. It lost 4.9% after being accused of “betrayal of democracy” by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On the contrary, Tesla gained 0.8% after the company said this weekend that it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles during the third quarter. 

Shares of Merck rose 2.1%, following through on an 8% surge on October 1. The company’s shares jumped on October 1, after the drug maker said its antiviral treatment developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for Covid-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases.

Shares of Southwest rose 1.3% after an upgrade to overweight from the equal weight from Barclays. 

Energy stocks also rose on October 4 amid an uptick in oil prices. ConocoPhillips gained 2% and Exxon Mobil added 1.3%. 

The last quarter of the year is typically a good period for stocks. But overhangs like the central bank’s decision, the debt ceiling, China Evergrande Group, and Covid-19 could keep investors cautious. Heading into the last quarter of 2021, more than half of all S&P 500 stocks are off at least 10%.