Yahoo Finance Asian Markets Fall; U.S. Mid-term Elections Take Center Stage
Investing.com - Asian markets fell in afternoon trade on Wednesday. U.S. mid-term elections took centre stage as multiple networks including Fox, NBC, CNN, and FiveThirtyEight said the Democrats had won control of the House of Representatives, splitting Congress and boosting the party's ability to block President Donald Trump's political and economic agenda.
The Republicans were expected to keep their majority in the Senate.
While many feared a split Congress could lead to political gridlock in Washington, stifling President Donald Trump's ability to further implement expansive fiscal policy measures, some on Wall Street reminded investors that markets generally do well in those times.
"Markets generally do well under gridlock," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC). "A modest infrastructure bill might see bipartisan support, which could lift industrials and materials."
"It has clearly become difficult for Republicans to pass additional tax hikes or amendments to Dodd-Frank regulations (on financial institutions) for instance," said Tomoaki Shishido, fixed income analyst at Nomura Securities.
In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component slipped 0.6% and 0.4% respectively. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.2%.
Tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) said it would put an age limit on all its online games, which are already suffering from declined revenues, by 2019.
Tencent first placed an age restriction on its popular game Honor of Kings after receiving complaints from angry parents in July 2017. Children under the age of 18 can only play the game for one or two hours per day. The company also recently introduced a real name registration system for the game and is testing facial recognition software. Nine other games and the rest of Tencent’s titles will have the same restriction this year and in 2019.
The Chinese authorities haven't issued any new game licenses since March.
According to gaming industry intelligence provider NewZoo, Tencent is the world's largest video game publisher. The company reported its first drop in profit since 2005 this summer due to lower gaming revenue. China's education ministry said it would control the number of video games to fight myopia in the country on August 30, Tencent’s Hong Kong shares were down 4.9% to HK$340 (US$43) the next day.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.1%, while South Korea's KOSPI also slipped 0.2%.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.4%.
In other news, online financial publication Moneylife reported on Wednesday that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel could resign at the central bank's next board meeting on November 19.
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