TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slid to their lowest in six months on Friday, on signs U.S. trade battles with China and many other countries are starting to chip away at corporate profits, while oil prices were choppy ahead of an OPEC meeting to discuss raising output.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped as much as 0.35 percent at one point to touch its lowest since early December.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI hit six-month lows, having lost 3.9 percent so far this week. South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 hit nine-month lows and in mainland China, the CSI300 index .CSI300 lost almost 5 percent this week to hit one-year lows.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost 0.85 percent.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell for an eighth straight session on Thursday and the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.63 percent, with industrials .SPLRCI and materials shares .SPLRCM hit hard.
Even the high-flying Nasdaq Composite .IXIC, which has outperformed this year on the perception that high-tech shares were less vulnerable to trade wars, shed 0.88 percent.
In a sign that escalating tensions between the United States and its trade partners were taking a toll on the economy, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s gauge of U.S. Mid-Atlantic business activity published on Thursday fell to a 1-1/2 year low.
“The Philadelphia Fed’s survey showed a drop in new orders. Investors are concerned that the trade frictions are starting to affect corporate sentiment and their activities,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at
