GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stumbles again despite Wall St bounce amid growth, earnings fears

In This Article:

* MSCI Asia Ex-Japan -0.7 pct

* China shares swing from gains to losses and back

* Amazon, Alphabet earnings disappoint

* Euro falls after Draghi reaffirms end of asset purchase program

By Andrew Galbraith

SHANGHAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped again on Friday morning, deepening this week's markets rout, after disappointing results from Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com heightened concerns over the outlook for U.S. corporate earnings, global trade and economic growth.

The wobbly start for regional bourses came despite a bounce on Wall Street overnight, which was helped by bargain-hunting and positive earnings from Microsoft Corp.

Those gains were put into perspective, however, as shares of both Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc fell sharply after the closing bell on disappointing earnings.

Predictably, the Nasdaq futures turned down 1 percent and S&P E-mini futures fell 0.8 percent, underscoring broad worries about U.S. corporate earnings, and the outlook for the economy, which triggered a plunge on Wall Street on Wednesday and sent global markets into a tailspin.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.69 percent, erasing tiny gains made in the opening hour.

The index has been bruised by a heavy sell-off in the past several days, and is on course for its fifth weekly loss - its longest such streak since 2015. It has fallen more than 3 percent this week.

Shares in China moved in and out of the black in choppy trade, with the blue-chip index down 0.39 percent and the Shanghai Composite off less than 0.1 percent.

Chinese shares have been hit by volatility this week amid a string of official announcements and measures aimed at supporting the markets following a recent plunge. The heavy sell-off has raised concerns about risks posed by about $620 billion worth of shares pledged for loans.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was 0.55 percent lower, with tech shares dropping 1.9 percent.

Tech firms also fell in South Korea, where the broader market fell 1.7 percent, deepening losses after the Kospi closed at its lowest level since January 2017 on Thursday.

Chipmaker SK Hynix was down 1.24 percent after falling 3 percent on Thursday, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd was 5.58 percent lower.

In Australia, shares turned down 0.31 percent after gaining modestly at the start. Japan's Nikkei stock index also snapped back into the red after pushing up in early deals, last trading down 0.22 percent after tumbling 3.7 percent on Thursday.

Financial markets have been whipsawed in recent sessions on concerns over global growth as investors fretted over Sino-U.S. trade frictions, a mixed bag of U.S. corporate earnings, Federal Reserve rate hikes and Italian budget woes. A slowdown in China has been particularly worrying for policy makers and investors, hitting asset markets from stocks to currencies and commodities.