Asian stocks decline after another slump at Wall Street

Asian stocks declined at the open after Wall Street’s slide, as investors moved away from riskier assets ahead of Nvidia Corp.’s earnings and a key US jobs report later this week.

A gauge of Asia-Pacific shares extended its losses to a third day after the S&P 500 dropped 0.9% and the Nasdaq 100 shed 0.8%. Amid the weak sentiment, MSCI’s global stock gauge traded at a one-month low, while Bitcoin held its losses after falling to the lowest level since April.

The moves underscored the mood of uncertainty around interest rates and tech earnings. Nvidia’s report on Wednesday will come amid investor uneasiness about lofty AI valuations, even though the chipmaker is expected to deliver another earnings beat. Then there’s the September jobs report, which will be released Thursday after a delay due to the US shutdown.

“The monthly jobs report would normally dominate this week’s economic calendar, but with the AI trade struggling the past couple of weeks, Nvidia’s earnings are once again looking like a key piece of the market’s momentum puzzle,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.

In other corners of the market, gold edged lower and oil steadied as investors weighed the impact from an emerging surplus against US sanctions on Russia that have upended some crude flows. An index of the dollar held its gains from the prior session.

Bitcoin traded around $92,000 after a decline that erased its gains for the year. An index which tracks the 50 smallest digital assets in a basket of 100 fell to its lowest level since November 2020 on Sunday.

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