Stocks Fell All Over the World

Stocks in Asia-Pacific declined on January 21, tracking declines on Wall Street overnight. In the meantime, oil prices plunged from the 2014 highs earlier in the week, falling about 2%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.9% to end its trading day at 27,522.26. The Topix fell 0.59% to close at 1,927.18. On January 21, auto and tech stocks declined across the board, but pared some losses. Toyota dropped more than 2%, Mazda fell 3.39% and Mitsubishi declined 3.73%.

In tech stocks, Sony dropped 1.37% and Softbank fell 0.72%.

Japan’s inflation data showed that core consumer prices rose 0.5% in the last month of 2021 to a year earlier. Furthermore, the increase was for a second month straight at the fastest pace in nearly two years.

Australia’s ASX 200 dropped 2.27% to 7,175.80, as major miners, oil and banks declined.

Mainland Chinese stocks suffered losses on January 21. The Shanghai composite fell 0.91% to finish its trading day at 3,522.57. The Shenzhen component dropped 1.19% to close at 14,029.55.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 1% to 2,834.29. Taiwan’s Taiex declined 1.75% to 17,899.30.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.19% as of its final hour of trade. Alibaba declined 3.7%.

U.S. stocks on January 20

As stated earlier, U.S. stocks declined on January 20. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3% to close at 14,154.02 after giving up a 2.1% gain from earlier in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 312.26 points to 34,715.39 on January 20. Importantly, the 30-day stock average closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since December 2021. The S&P 500 declined 1.1% to close at 4,482.73. On January 20, the S&P 500 closed below 4,500 for the first time since October 2021. 

On the same day, the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 fell nearly 1.9%.