Asian stocks retreat amid mixed tone on Wall St

Mounting Pressure

• Trading in WeWork shares was halted

• Its share price fell below $1 from over $400 two years ago

• China’s exports fell 6.4%, 6th straight monthly decline

• Slowdown in China’s growth pulls oil prices lower

Bangkok: Shares mostly fell in Europe and Asia on Tuesday after a mixed close on Wall Street, where wild recent moves calmed a bit at the beginning of a quiet week for data releases.

Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2 per cent to 15,110.26 and the CAC 40 in Paris also fell 0.2 per cent, to 7,002.53. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.1 per cent to 7,410.08. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3 per cent.

Late Monday, office-sharing company WeWork confirmed it is seeking bankruptcy protection. Trading in its shares was halted on Monday amid speculation over its restructuring plans. It’s a stunning decline for a one-time Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world. The company’s shares cost more than $400 two years ago, but now cost less than $1.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.3 per cent to 32,271.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.7 per cent to 17,670.16 The Shanghai Composite index slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 3,057.27. China reported its imports rose 3 per cent in October from a year earlier, the first such increase in over a year, while exports fell 6.4 per cent, the sixth straight monthly decline. The trade surplus fell to $56.5 billion. Expectations that China’s growth will remain slow helped pull oil prices lower. A barrel of benchmark US crude gave up $1.23 to $79.59 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 31 cents to settle at $80.82 a barrel on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.25 to $83.93 a barrel. It rose 29 cents to $85.18 per barrel on Monday. Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3 per cent to 6,977.10 after the central bank raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.35 per cent. The Reserve Bank of Australia has been trying to bring inflation back to its two per cent-3 per cent target by raising interest rates, though it’s near the end of its tightening cycle.