Asian stocks slip after Wall Street sell off dents tech rally

Tech giants such as Apple, Tesla and Microsoft fell between 6% and 9%

A woman looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index. Asian markets skidded on Friday after Wall Street had its worst day since June. AP

Asian stock markets had their worst session in two weeks on Friday following a tech-led plunge on Wall Street, though gains in safer assets like bonds and dollars were muted as investors awaited US job data to see if it triggers a bigger sell off.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.6 per cent and looked set for a 2.4 per cent weekly loss, its biggest since April.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 1 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.8 per cent.

That was shallower than the 5 per cent plunge on the tech-heavy Nasdaq overnight or the S&P 500's 3.5 per cent drop. Those were the steepest Wall Street losses since June, but traders said a correction was overdue given recent frothy gains.

"It was steady rather than panic selling throughout," said ING's regional head of research Rob Carnell.

"It just doesn't sound or feel like anything other than a bit of profit taking ... if this was a massive risk-off move, you'd have expected the dollar to rally, and it didn't really."

The focus is on upcoming US payrolls figures, which are seen as a possible selling trigger if it disappoints economists' expectations that some 14 million jobs were created in August.

Thursday's tumble was the biggest one-day percentage drop on the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 since March and the darling stocks of recent months were hit hardest.

Apple fell 8 per cent, Tesla 9 per cent and Microsoft 6 per cent. Still, the plunge only wound the Nasdaq back as far as where it sat last Tuesday. It is still up 28 per cent for the year so far and 73 per cent higher than its March trough.

"No single factor sparked the selloff," said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

"However, this is unlikely to be a repeat of the tech wreck of the late 1990s, given how much the market and sector have changed," he added.

Tech selling in Asia was limited. In South Korea Samsung fell 1.6 per cent and there was modest pressure on Apple suppliers in Shanghai and Taipei.

The dollar was steady, but a drop in the euro over last few days on talk that the European Central Bank is concerned about its strength had the greenback eying its best week in more than two months against a basket of currencies.

The euro seems to have arrested its slide for now, and sat at $1.1852.