HONG KONG — U.S. futures and Asian shares traded mostly lower on Friday, tracking Wall Street’s losses as technology stocks again dragged on markets.
Bitcoin sank to roughly half its record price, giving back all it gained since U.S. President Donald Trump won the White House for his second term.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.8% to 54,253.68, recovering from losses earlier this week, with technology-related stocks leading gains. SoftBank Group rose 2.2% and chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 2.6%. Japan will also be holding its general election on Sunday, in which Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expects to win a stronger public mandate for her policies.
Shares of Toyota Motor were up 2%. The carmaker said Friday its CEO Koji Sato will be stepping down in April, and is to be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Kenta Kon.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.4% to 5,089.14, weighed down by tech shares. Samsung Electronics, the country’s biggest listed company, fell 0.4%. Chipmaker SK Hynix was also down 0.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 26,519.60. The Shanghai Composite index was down 0.3% to 4,065.58.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 2% to 8,708.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex was mostly flat. India’s Sensex traded 0.1% lower.
Against the backdrop of the technology sell-off this week, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, saw dimming enthusiasm and was trading about 8% lower at just under $65,000 early Friday, after it briefly sank over 12% to below $64,000 on