Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower amid virus worries

Beijing:  Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Tuesday as surging coronavirus infections in the United States and some other countries tempered investor optimism about development of possible vaccines.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul declined.
Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.2% as health care, financial and energy stocks declined.
Investor worries have risen as some U.S. states and European countries reimpose anti-virus curbs on travel and business, threatening to drag down shaky economic activity in what is expected to be a bleak winter.
‘ Too much, too soon ‘ was arguably the memo sent to market bulls, said Mizuho Bank in a report. The surge in new U.S. cases begs the question of whether vaccine euphoria was getting ahead of outbreak realities. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.2% to 26,486.61 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.5% to 26,381.28.
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2% to 3,410.55 after opening higher following China’s announcement of a 21.1% jump in November exports.