Business News Live: Asian shares stumble as U.S. yields, dollar hold firm

9:00 A.M.

Asian shares stumble

Asian shares plunged, tracking declines on Wall Street as investors fretted over economic uncertainties that raised U.S. benchmark bond yields and pushed the dollar to a more than 10-month high, Reuters.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.43% with Australia off 1.5%, and South Korea falling 2.06%. The Hong Kong benchmark plunged 1.2% and Chinese blue chips were 1.1% lower.

Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.35% while all three major U.S. stock indexes slid nearly 2% or more. It was the S&P 500 index’s biggest one-day percentage drop since May, and the Nasdaq’s largest since March, but U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were up 0.25% in Asian hours.