Asian Stocks Fall after the Plummet in Wall Street Last Night over Covid-19 Concerns

Stocks in Asia traded lower on Tuesday after a plummet in the Wall Street last night in concerns over the resurgence of Covid-19 cases due to the faster-spread Delta variant.

 

As of 9:37 local time in Thailand, Nikkei fell 0.62%, SSEC dropped 0.64%, HSI plunged 0.67%, ASX 200 slipped 0.22% and Kospi dipped 0.47%.

Over the night, Dow Jones fell 725 points or 2.09% to 33,962.04 points, the worst day since October last year. Meanwhile, S&P 500 dropped 1.59% and Nasdaq plunged 1.06%.

 

The sell-off came as a rise in new cases of COVID-19 unnerved investors. Key indicators of COVID-19 transmission in the United States continue to surge amid a slowdown of vaccination rates and rapid spread of variants.

The average number of new daily cases was nearly 30,000 in the 7-day ending Friday, compared with the previous 7-day average of 18,642, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, oil prices dropped more than 7% overnight on the concerns of Covid-19 resurgence and the increasing output of OPEC+.