Investing.com - Asian markets slid in afternoon trade on Friday as anxiety over the outlook for U.S. corporate profits weighed on sentiment.
Risk sentiment seemed to have turned sour in afternoon trading sessions in Asia even after U.S. stocks closed higher, as Asian stocks and U.S. stock futures both traded lower.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s shares plunged 6% in after-market trading as its sales and operating income fell short of estimates. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said its third-quarter revenue also missed forecasts.
Looking ahead, markets are likely to focus on the upcoming U.S. third-quarter GDP data due later in the day.
"Markets will be watching this number carefully as it could give signs if we are close to peak earnings for U.S. corporates. Housing data and consumer goods durables data has been soft lately," said Bank of Singapore's Sim.
The Fed is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points in December.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.4% by 1:48 AM ET (05:48 GMT), on track for a slide of almost 5% this week.
Government data showed on Friday that Tokyo’s core consumer price index rose 1.0% in October from a year earlier, matching a median market forecast.
The Bank of Japan's rate review is due next week. Markets widely expect the central bank to maintain a steady monetary policy steady.
China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.5%, while the Shenzhen Component inched down 0.3%.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg reported that China National Petroleum Corp and Sinopec have been told to avoid buying Iranian oil, although the freeze on imports are expected to be only temporary, the people added.
U.S. sanctions against Iran is scheduled to take effect from Nov. 4 and earlier reports suggested that Washington is seeking to eventually reduce Iran’s exports sales to zero and isolate the Islamic Republic.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index traded 1.2% lower.
Shares of Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (HK:0293) fell 2.15% to HK$10 on Friday morning after a slide of almost 7% to a nine-year low in the previous session.
The plummet came after the company’s report Wednesday on a major passenger data leak.
Data from about 9.4 million passengers in Cathay and its subsidiary, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, was accessed. This information included names, nationalities, date of birth, phone numbers, email, addresses, passport numbers, ID card numbers and historical travel information. On top of that, 27 credit card numbers with no card verification value (CVV) were also accessed.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s KOSPI was down 1.8%. Australia’s ASX 200 declined 0.1%.