Asian shares slip after Wall Street logs its worst day in 3 weeks

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares fell Monday in Asia and the price of bitcoin sank as traders braced for an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan, expected later in the week.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1.3% to 50,168.11 after a quarterly “tankan” survey of big manufacturers by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment among such businesses. The measure of those expressing optimism rose to 15 from 14 in the last quarter, the highest level in four years, the central bank said.

The index shows the percentage of companies reporting positive conditions minus the percentage reporting unfavorable ones. While the overall survey showed improvement, forecasts for the next quarter were less positive.

Japan’s economy contracted at a 2.3% annual pace in the July-September quarter, the first such decline in six quarters. But an agreement between Japan and the U.S. over the level of President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs, limiting baseline import duties to 15%, has helped to reduce uncertainty for big automakers and electronics companies.

The positive results from the BOJ survey reinforced the belief it will push ahead with a 0.25 percentage point rate hike that will take the key lending rate to 0.75%.

Higher rates are expected to draw investment back into Japan, sapping demand for alternatives such as cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s price slipped below $88,000 early Monday from about $92,000, according to CoinDesk. It recovered to just over $90,000 later in the day.

Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese markets fell after the government reported weak investment figures in the latest signal that demand in the world’s second largest economy remains weak.

The government reported that investment in fixed assets such as factory equipment and other infrastructure fell 2.6% in November from a year earlier, implying that such investments dropped 11.1% year-on-year in the first 11 months of the year.

Retail sales rose 4% in January-November from a year earlier, while factory output climbed 4.8%.

The report followed a high-level meeting of China’s Communist Party leadership last week that yielded no major policy shifts, and a pledge to continue to try to boost consumer spending and investment needed to drive higher domestic demand.

“Policy support should help drive a partial recovery in the coming months, but this probably won’t prevent China’s growth from remaining weak across 2026 as a whole,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 1.4% to 25,625.60. The Shanghai Composite index gave back 0.6% to 3,867.92.

The Kospi in South Korea dropped 1.8%, to 4,090.59.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7% to 8,640.60 and Taiwan’s benchmark lost 1.2%. India’s Sensex was little changed.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%.

On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1% from its all-time high for its worst day in three weeks. Weakness in tech stocks yanked the Nasdaq composite down by a market-leading 1.7%, and the Dow shed 0.5%.

Artificial intelligence heavyweight Broadcom dragged the market lower and tumbled 11.4% even though the chip company reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts called the performance solid, and CEO Hock Tan said strong 74% growth in AI semiconductor revenue helped lead the way.

The drop added to worries about the AI boom that flared a day before, when Oracle plunged nearly 11% despite likewise reporting a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Chip maker Nvidia fell 3.3%, while Oracle fell another 4.5%.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 26 cents to $57.70 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 29 cents to $61.41 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 155.16 Japanese yen from 155.92 yen late Friday. The euro fell to $1.1733 from $1.1739.