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November 13, 2025 – 23:19

(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks were primed to track Wall Street lower Friday, as optimism linked to the US government reopening was tempered by uncertainty over interest rates and equity valuations.

Equity index futures for Japan, Australia and Hong Kong all fell in early Asian trading. The S&P 500 closed 1.7% lower while the Nasdaq 100 declined 2.1% in Thursday’s session. The broad-based selling wiped 2.7% from a gauge of megacaps while the Russell 2000 benchmark of small firms lost 2.8% in New York trading.

Traditional havens offered little reprieve. The dollar, gold and Treasuries all fell Thursday, leaving the US 10-year yield five basis points higher as investors parsed commentary from Federal Reserve officials that cast doubt over a December rate cut. Bitcoin sank below $100,000 and is down more than 20% since early October.

The moves marked a fresh hit to risk sentiment underscored by the heavy selling in high-flying tech giants partly due to valuation concerns. Under the surface, some market observers pointed to a rotation into more defensive names.

“It’s an expensive market and expensive markets need lower rates to help justify today’s elevated valuations,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co. “So, the idea that this could change quickly with so much data coming out all at once, this uncertainty is raising some fear in the marketplace.”

President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest shutdown in US history, but it may still take a while for the federal bureaucracy to fully restart. The October jobs report will skip the unemployment rate, US top economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News’ America’s Newsroom.

Currently, traders are pricing in about even odds the Fed will cut rates in December. Chair Jerome Powell said last month that a reduction is “not a foregone conclusion,” with the decision to be premised on incoming information. Some traders may be concerned that the omission of key data due to the shutdown may bolster arguments for officials to stand pat.

In separate statements, Fed Bank of St. Louis President Alberto Musalem said officials should move cautiously on rates with inflation running above target, while Cleveland counterpart Beth Hammack noted policy should remain “somewhat restrictive.” Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he didn’t support the last cut and is undecided on December.

In Asia, investors await data due Friday on China home prices, retail sales and the jobless rate, following signs of sluggishness in the credit market. Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the People’s Bank of China on Thursday showed China’s credit expansion was the weakest in more than a year last month, dragged down by slower government bond sales and lackluster borrowing demand across the economy.

Elsewhere, gross domestic product for Malaysia and Hong Kong, and consumer confidence for Thailand are all set to be released.

Read: Job Cuts Surge as Japan Inc. Rebalances Aging Workforce

Meanwhile, Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted a faster-than-anticipated 15% rise in revenue, sustaining the steady growth that’s helped the social media leader attract investors despite eschewing splashy investments in AI infrastructure. Separately, Tencent struck a deal with Apple Inc. that will see the iPhone maker handle payments and take a 15% cut of purchases in WeChat mini games and apps, resolving a high-profile dispute.

Mini games, contained entirely within WeChat contributed to 32.3 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in social network revenue for China’s most valuable company in the September quarter.

With the flow of releases resuming only gradually following the US government shutdown, traders are left with continued data void, which means price action could be driven more by sentiment and positioning than by hard data, according to Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com.

“The question now is whether the market’s recent exuberance has run its course,” he said. “After a stellar rally since April, technology shares look increasingly overvalued and overstretched, with sentiment tempered by a lack of fresh catalysts and a lull in economic data.”

Over the past few sessions, Razaqzada said that a noticeable rotation has occurred in stocks, with traders moving out of high-growth names and back into defensive and value-oriented sectors.

The slide in tech is making Nvidia Corp.’s earnings next week more important than ever, according to veteran Wall Street strategist Louis Navellier. A robust outlook by Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang is key to a strong year-end for the stock market, he said.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

Hang Seng futures fell 1.4% as of 7:14 a.m. Tokyo time S&P/ASX 200 futures fell 1.5% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2% The euro was little changed at $1.1639 The Japanese yen was unchanged at 154.56 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0953 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6534 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin rose 0.4% to $99,183.57 Ether rose 0.9% to $3,205.18 Commodities

Spot gold fell 0.6% to $4,171.52 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

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