Asia Stocks Drop With Nasdaq Futures on Apple; Commodities Slide 

Asian stocks retreated with Nasdaq 100 Index futures as Apple Inc. tumbled in after-hours trade and the dollar held losses. Oil and gold resumed declines as a gauge of commodities dropped back to a 13-year low.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 1 percent by 2:21 p.m. in Tokyo, with a rebound in the yen sending Japan’s Topix index 1 percent lower. Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.2 percent with Apple tumbling as much as 8.8 percent in extended U.S. trading and Microsoft Corp. sliding 4 percent after both companies posted disappointing results. Oil declined and spot gold retreated below $1,100 an ounce after rising Tuesday. Wheat extended its longest slump in 13 months amid rising supplies.

Apple’s lower-than-expected iPhone shipments and a sales forecast below estimates hit shares of suppliers AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., Sharp Corp., Japan Display Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Gold may fall below $1,000 an ounce, underscoring a structural bear market in commodities, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jeffrey Currie said in an interview. Australia’s second-quarter consumer prices grew less than estimated, data showed Wednesday before U.S. housing reports.

“Markets are going to get more volatile” Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. in Sydney, said by phone. “The earnings season in the U.S. is going to be quite weak. Investors are expecting too much from Apple and that’s already reflected in the share price. How much more improvement can Apple deliver unless they introduce a radically different product from what competitors like Samsung are offering?”

Tech Losses

Technology stocks led declines in MSCI’s Asia Pacific benchmark. Apple’s after-market drop, if continued, would erase more than $50 billion in market value, furthering the Nasdaq Composite Index’s retreat from a record high reached Monday.

The Kospi index in Seoul dropped 1 percent as Samsung — a rival and supplier to Apple — slipped a third day, losing 1.5 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.2 percent as Computershare Ltd. slid 2.8 percent.

Apple slid to as low as $119.20 in extended trade, while Microsoft reported the company’s biggest ever net loss. Yahoo! Inc. also declined in afterhours trade, losing 1.8 percent after predicting sales for the current quarter that were below analysts’ estimates.

International Business Machines Corp., or IBM, dropped during the normal trading day after it reported a drop in sales. At the start of the year, analysts forecast the technology sector would deliver a 13 percent increase in profit during the second quarter, Bloomberg data showed. That was lowered to a 2.4 percent gain as of July 17.

U.S. Futures

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell in Asian trade, falling 0.4 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 1.3 percent, dragged lower by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. and Lenovo Group Ltd. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 2.1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 1 percent after a four-day rally.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed Wednesday after losing 0.5 percent in the previous session to snap a four-day rally. The gauge had risen 2.5 percent from the end of June through July 20. Investors are scrutinizing U.S. data to gauge the timeline for Federal Reserve interest-rate increases, with policy makers to meet next week.

The yen, which typically moves at odds with Japanese equities, strengthened 0.2 percent to 123.7 per dollar after climbing 0.3 percent last session. The euro was steady at $1.094 following a 1 percent rebound on Tuesday. Korea’s won jumped 0.4 percent after sinking the past two days.

Aussie Weakness

Australia’s dollar slipped 0.1 percent after the weaker-than-estimated inflation reading and as the rout in commodities resumed. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said the question of further interest-rate cuts remains “on the table,” according to the text of an address in Sydney Wednesday.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials resumed declines, falling 0.5 percent to the lowest since June 2002. Bullion for immediate delivery slipped 0.6 percent to $1,094.46, while futures sank 1 percent in the U.S.

“With the more positive outlook on the dollar, and with debasement risk starting to fade, the demand to use gold as a diversifying asset against the U.S. dollar becomes less and less important,” said Goldman’s Currie. “We think we are in a structural bear market, not only in gold, but across the commodity complex, as the individual commodity stories are reinforcing to one another, creating a negative feedback loop.”

WTI, Wheat

West Texas Intermediate crude retreated 1.4 percent to $50.17 a barrel, while Brent slipped 0.8 percent to $56.56 ahead of U.S. government data on oil stockpiles.

Inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels last week, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to have reported. While a drop of 2.2 million barrels is forecast in a Bloomberg survey before the report due Wednesday, supplies are set to remain almost 100 million barrels above the five-year average.

Wheat futures for September delivery dropped 0.3 percent, and touched their lowest price since June 25 amid signs favorable U.S. weather is bolstering supplies of the grain.

Source: Bloomberg – Asia Stocks Drop With Nasdaq Futures on Apple; Commodities Slide

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