Stocks decline as Fed jitters and Middle East concerns continue to sour investor sentiment

On Friday, Asian equities continued to plunge sharply lower as a collapse in global bond markets further reduced risk appetite and traders remained on edge due to the possibility of another Israel-Hamas war escalation.

The steep sell-off in international bonds this week rattled regional markets, which peaked on Thursday after remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that an interest rate rise was still being contemplated for this year.

Many other Fed officials agreed with Powell's position, particularly in light of recent statistics showing that U.S. inflation is still sticky. Following a surge in Treasury rates, Wall Street indices ended the day down, giving regional markets a shaky start.

This week, a rise in global bond yields had a significant impact on Asian technology companies as the likelihood of increasing interest rates made growth equities less appealing.

Tech equities, particularly chipmakers, were hurt by disappointing third-quarter earnings results from leading chipmaker TSMC.

Chinese equities saw modest losses on Friday but were on track for hefty weekly falls as ongoing worries over the country's real estate market mainly overshadowed positive economic growth figures.

Chinese stock indexes Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai lost 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, to trade close to one-year lows.

After the troubled property developer reportedly skipped a crucial payment on its international debts this week, traders remained mostly leery of Chinese assets due to the lack of information about a potential default by Country Garden. The company reportedly wanted to have additional discussions with bondholders.

As was largely anticipated, China's central bank held its benchmark loan prime rate steady at historic lows on Friday.

Now that the UK retail sales are out, which came in worse than expected, the economic calendar is pretty quiet for the rest of the day.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)