Asian, European stocks down as US midterms worry markets

Asian stocks fell on Thursday after inconclusive US midterm election results and a cryptocurrency crisis hammered markets, AFP reported.
The uncertainty, especially about how the midterm results would impact inflation, transferred from Wall Street to Asia overnight.
Hong Kong dropped 1.7 percent while Tokyo shed nearly one percent and Shanghai also closed lower. Seoul, Sydney, Jakarta and Taipei also fell.
London, Paris, and Frankfurt all opened on Thursday in the red, continuing the slide in European markets.
All eyes are expected to turn to US inflation data, due later Thursday, to gauge the speed of future rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Fed officials have raised their policy rate to a range of between 3.75 to 4.0 percent.
– ‘Crypto tumult’ –
Markets in Asia were already grappling with the impact of strict zero-Covid measures in China, with supply chains and activity slowed by harsh lockdowns and testing policies.
The crypto world was also rocked by a surprise decision from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency platform, to scrap a possible acquisition of rival FTX.com a day after disclosing it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to buy it.
The near-collapse of FTX has plunged bitcoin to a two-year low.