Tokyo's main index closes near the lows for the day
From its October peak, the index is down by more than 13% and on the year it is in the red by about 7.3% as of the close today. The drop here is mainly a reflection of the beat down suffered by US equities overnight as global growth worries reared its ugly head.
Equities sentiment in Asian trading isn't looking too bright with the Hang Seng down 1.3% and the Shanghai Composite down 1.0% currently. E-minis are also trading near the lows around between 0.05% to 0.10% lower on the day and that's not helping to lift the mood ahead of European markets open later.
Yen pairs are weighed down as a result with USD/JPY at 112.59 currently, though off the lows. The surprising exception to all the negativity in risk is the outperformance seen in the aussie and kiwi. I'm quite skeptical on those early gains with the risk backdrop looking tepid so let's see if we get any reversals later in the session.
