Investing.com - Asian shares slumped on Friday with a downbeat initial assessment of China manufacturing disappointing investors.
The Shanghai Composite fell sharply after the Caixin China Manufacturing PMI flash fell to 47.1, a 77-month low, from an expected 47.7 for August. At the break, it was down 3.04%.
The Hang Seng index also fell, down 2.30%, and the S&P/ASX 200 eased 1.65%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.21%.
Earlier, the Nikkei Japan PMI Manufacturing survey eased to 51.9 in August fro the flash estimate, below the 52.1 level seen.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were battered and bruised on Thursday completing one of their worst two-day skids on the calendar year, amid a global economic slowdown and rising bond prices, as the markets reacted to the growing possibility that the Federal Reserve could delay a highly-anticipated interest rate hike beyond September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 350 points to its lowest level since last October while suffering its worst two-day period since late-January. The NASDAQ Composite index and the S&P Composite index also dipped to multi-month lows during the bearish session, as energy, biotech and media stocks weighed on all three indices. Shares in prominent large-cap stocks such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:FB) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:NFLX) all took a nosedive on Thursday, each plunging more than 2% on the session.
The Dow plummeted 358.04 or 2.06% to 16,990.69, while the NASDAQ lost 141.56 or 2.82% to close at 4,877.49. The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell 43.88 or 2.11% to 2,035.73, as stocks in all 10 sectors closed in the red. Stocks in the Technology, Energy, Consumer Services, Industrial and Health Care industries lagged, each falling more than 2% on the session.
The massive sell-off was not confined to the U.S., as emerging markets in Asia continued to react to long-term stimulus measures by the People's Bank of China in an effort to rescue a fledgling equities market. In China, stocks on the Shanghai Composite Index fell more than 3.4% on the session to drop below 3,665, while the Japanese Nikkei nearly dropped 1% on Thursday to fall to a six-week low. The downturn spilled over into European markets, as the German DAX and the French CAC both fell by more than 2% on the day.