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Asian shares advance despite Wall Street
losses as US Treasury's moves fail to calm markets
[August 21, 2026]
By CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG
(AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday following a retreat on
Wall Street as a U.S. Treasury Department plan to boost its government
debt buybacks had only limited capacity to calm markets.
U.S. futures edged higher.
Japan’s
Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% to 66,016.36. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% to
6,912.95. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.1% to 25,967.58, while the
Shanghai Composite index was up less than 0.1% to 3,905.20. |
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea
Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate
between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing
room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Aug.
21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) |
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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3% to 9,058.90. Taiwan’s Taiex
gained 0.7%, while India’s Sensex was unchanged.
The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will at
least double the size of its planned purchases of longer-term
government debt, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled
Thursday that the repurchase program could be larger.
The announcement temporarily brought down government bond
yields, which have been elevated under concerns about high
inflation partly caused by the war in Iran and rising U.S.
government debt. Higher yields tend to slow the broader economy
due to increased borrowing costs across the financial system and
can undercut stock prices.
But analysts said they expect the effect on bond yields were to
be temporary. The yield of the U.S. 10-year Treasury was around
4.69%, up from nearly 4.64% on Thursday and back near its level
before the Treasury Department’s announcement.
The 30-year Treasury yield was about 5.24%, up from 5.18% on
Thursday.
In Asia, bond yields also rose back. Japan’s 10-year government
bond yield, which had been trading near 30-year highs, rose to
about 2.88% from around 2.83% on Thursday.
The latest climb in bond yields has weighed on share prices. On
Thursday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 lost 0.9%. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%, and the technology-heavy
Nasdaq composite dropped 1%.
In other dealings early Friday, oil prices fell, even as the
U.S. stepped up its economic threats toward Iran while limited
progress has been made toward de-escalation of tensions between
Washington and Tehran.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.5% to $93.35 a
barrel. It was trading at roughly $72 per barrel before the
start of the war. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 0.7% to $86.23 a
barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 158.81 Japanese yen from 159.05 yen. The
euro was trading at $1.1694, up from $1.1681.
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