ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Asian Equities Slide as Hot U.S. PPI, Oil Spike Lift Fed Hike Bets; Nikkei Down 2.5%, KOSPI Off 2.6%

According to Sina Finance, the Central News Agency and the Hong Kong Economic Times, Asian equities broadly retreated at midday Friday after a hotter-than-expected U.S. August producer price index, a jump in oil prices to a near five-month high and 10-year Treasury yields approaching 5% lifted bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike next week to about 70%, pressuring rate-sensitive and metals sectors. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 sank to 63,630.11 as of 04:33 UTC, down 1,640.84 or 2.51%, with chip-related names among the heaviest losers; Advantest fell 7.40% and Tokyo Electron dropped 4.01%. Seoul's KOSPI, which opened down 3.29%, was at 6,853.07 as of 04:33 UTC, off 180.85 or 2.57%. Chip heavyweights weighed on the index, with Samsung Electronics down 4.18% and SK Hynix off 3.78%. Hong Kong stocks closed the morning session lower, with the Hang Seng Index down 0.85% at 24,742.51 and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 0.79% at the half-day break. Non-ferrous metal names slid, with Jiangxi Copper down 10.65% after LME copper tumbled on stalled U.S. tariff plans; property developers and storage-chip stocks also weakened, while Tencent bucked the trend, up 1.03% at HK$430.00, and Xiaomi added 1.23%. Taiwan's TAIEX was at 46,326.10 as of 04:32 UTC, down 1.31%, having fallen more than 900 points intraday to a low of 45,964 and breaching the 46,000 level; TSMC eased 1.22% to NT$2,420 and MediaTek fell 2.44%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite ended the morning down 1.82% at 3,862.73, the Shenzhen Component off 2.34% at 13,298.77 and the ChiNext Index down 2.04% at 3,270.35, with precious- and industrial-metal shares leading declines while defense and power names traded higher.