TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares tumbled on Friday after China reported a set of weak data, fanning fresh worries of a sharp slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy and leaving investors fretting over the wider impact of a yet unresolved Sino-U.S. trade dispute.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.4 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.1 percent.
Mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite and the blue-chip CSI 300 declined 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.6 percent.
China’s November retail sales grew at the weakest pace since 2003 and industrial output rose the least in nearly three years as domestic demand softened further, underlining rising risks to the economy as Beijing works to defuse a trade dispute with the United States.
The Chinese yuan weaked 0.2 percent to 6.8910 per dollar in the offshore trade following the data.
“Although hopes of progress in U.S.-China talks and cheap valuations are supporting the market for now, we have lots of potential pitfalls,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities.
“If U.S. shares fall below their triple bottoms hit recently, that would be a very weak technical sign.”
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 ticked down 0.02 percent to 2,650, not far from its 6-1/2-month closing low of 2,633 touched on Nov 23, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.39 percent.
U.S. corporate earnings due next month could throw a spotlight on the impact from the U.S. tariffs on imports from China, while there is risk of a government shutdown and further political stalemate in a divided U.S. congress, he said.
A Chinese commerce ministry spokesman
