This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.Global stock markets fell and safe havens such as bonds and the Japanese yen gained on Friday, as investors awaited Washington’s response to China tightening control over the city of Hong Kong.
Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2%. Japan’s Nikkei retreated from a three-month high and the yen rose to a two-week high of 107.06 against the dollar. Bonds rose. Hong Kong’s government warned on Friday that withdrawing its special U.S. status, which has underpinned it as a finance hub, could be a “double-edged sword” and urged the United States to stop interfering in its internal affairs.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.8% lower and has lost about 3% in the two weeks since news of China’s security legislation broke.In bond markets, yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell to 0.6656%, more than 100 basis points below where they began 2020.