Asia falters after Fed decision
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Sony is lower Thursday after posting a drop in quarterly profits.
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(CNN) -- Asian stocks are lower at midday Thursday after Wall Street tumbled on the Fed's decision to leave interest rates on hold.
The Nikkei 225 average is down 1.03 percent to 10,740.75, adding to falls on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The broader Topix index is off 0.89 percent to 1,048.72.
The dollar is trading above the 106-yen mark Thursday at 106.17, after dipping earlier to 105.93. That is close to a three-year low of 105.49 yen seen Tuesday.
Asian markets are weighing an indication from the U.S. Federal Reserve that U.S. interest rates could rise later this year, after the Fed left rates on hold, as expected.
Hong Kong, which slumped Wednesday on bird flu fears, is down again sharply, with the Hang Seng index off another 1.6 percent to 13,215.50
South Korea's Kospi is about 0.9 percent lower, Singapore's Straits Times index is down about 1 percent and there are falls too, for Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.
In Tokyo, consumer electronics leader Sony is down 1.85 percent to 4240 yen at the end of the morning session.
After the close Wednesday Sony posted a 26 percent drop in third-quarter earnings but said full-year net income would likely rise 10 percent to 55 billion yen. (Full story)
Japanese automakers are also weaker, with a fall of 1.7 percent for Toyota and 1.35 percent for Honda. Big banks too are mainly in the red. UFJ is down 1.45 percent to 475,00 yen.
But some techs are showing small gains, with Fujitsu up 0.7 percent and NEC Electronics up 1.3 percent.
In Seoul, the Kospi is down 0.9 percent to 851.76, with a 3.5 percent fall for big exporter Hyundai Motor and a 1.3 percent decline to 532,000 won for market heavyweight Samsung Electronics.
In Taiwan, the Taiex is 0.84 percent lower to 6332.84. Formosa Plastic is down 2.6 percent to $55.50. Big chip foundry TSMC is steady at T$67.50 while smaller rival UMC is up 0.3 percent to $T31.80.
In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is down 0.55 percent to 3261.3 in early afternoon trade.
Media giant News Corp. is down more than 1 percent, as is resources leader BHP Billiton. But big bank NAB is up slightly to A$30.44.
New Zealand's Top 50 has the region's biggest decline outside of Hong Kong, off 1.37 percent to 2485.42. The New Zealand central bank raised interest rates 0.25 percentage points Thursday morning. (Full story)
Wall Street continued its tumble for a second day Wednesday after reaching 31-month highs earlier this week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 141.55 points or 1.33 per cent to 10,468.37, its biggest daily percentage loss since late October. (Full story)
