WPL Woodside Petroleum Limited

Asian shares were broadly lower Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as equity markets indicate the 'Trump trade' could be overdone.

The Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.5%, after closing at a record high on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.7%, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 0.8% and Korea's Kospi was 0.7% lower.

"Globally, the Trump rally is starting to wane and that sentiment is bleeding over into other markets," said Alex Furber, a sales trader at CMC Markets. "Other concerns are coming into play…so we're seeing a little bit of a pullback on overdone optimism."

Investors have been betting that a Republican-led government will slash taxes and regulation, which some expect could jump-start growth and inflation.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.4% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, to 19192, after posting in November its biggest monthly gain since March. Asian stock markets tend to be most sensitive to the S&P 500.

Financial stocks in particular have benefited from hopes that their margins could rise, with Japan's Topix bank subsection recently up 2.7%.

However, some traders have started asking if the market has overestimated U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's impact on inflation and U.S. growth.

Elsewhere, gains gleaned Thursday, from the landmark deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production, fizzled out for some producers as oil prices corrected lower. In Australia, Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum fell 0.4% and 1.8%, respectively. Brent, the global benchmark, was last down 0.8% at $53.49 a barrel.

"Ahead of the weekend, after such decent upward moves and with the U.S. jobs data due out tonight coupled with the Italian referendum, the street is happy to crystallize profit and take some exposure off the table," said Gavin Parry, managing director of Parry Trading International.

Aaron Kuriloff contributed to this article.

Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2016 22:15 ET (03:15 GMT)

Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024