7:00AM Asian markets closed in the red. The Nikkei lost ground.
Asian-Pacific benchmarks sharply reversed from yesterday’s strong rally due to a heavy sell-off on profit taking. Negative sentiment was also generated by lower close on Wall Street, following disappointing quarterly results from Intel Corp. and weaker manufacturing data. The Nikkei rebounded from 3.1% advance Thursday to close down 0.84%, with notable weakness in property shares-Mitsubishi Estate off by 2.4% and Sumitomo Realty & Development, down 1.7%. Among other losing stocks, Softbank lost 3%, Yahoo Japan declined 2%, and Toyota Motor lost 0.7%. Across the region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished down 0.27%, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.1%, and Australia’s benchmark slid 0.72%. China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.6%, led by financial stocks, benefiting from strength of the yuan against the dollar.

European stocks moved lower at mid-day trading Friday, reflecting weaker U.S. markets close overnight and disappointing earnings reports from heavyweights in the tech sector. Following disappointing quarterly results from Intel Corp., European tech stocks came under pressure after German chip maker Infineon Technologies dropped 4% on 23% revenue growth but 1% drop on a sequential basis. Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson also contributed to the weakness in the sector, falling 0.9% on Q2 profit decrease, despite improved sales. Online poker operator PartyGaming advanced 0.9% on Q2 revenue jump by 49%. The German DAX 30 slipped 0.3%, the French CAC 40 declined 0.2%, and London FTSE 100 dropped 0.3%.