The Asian stock markets are expected to open lower again on Friday, thanks to disappointing economic data from around the globe.
In Asia, China's manufacturing sector performance continued to worsen with the factory activity entering an eighth month of contraction in June amid falling export orders.
In Europe, Spain's borrowing costs climbed again at a debt auction on Thursday despite rising demand.
In the United States, data showed a bigger than expected drop in existing home sales and weaker business conditions in June among Philadelphia-area manufacturing firms.
In addition, Moody's downgraded 14 of the world's largest banks to put increased pressure on the financial sectors.
The major U.S. averages finished sharply lower on Thursday as the Dow plunged 250.82 points or 2 percent to finish at 12,573.57, while the NASDAQ tumbled 71.36 points or 2.4 percent to end at 2,859.09 and the S&P 500 plunged 30.18 points or 2.2 percent to 1,325.51.
The major European markets also moved lower on Thursday as the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled 1 percent, the German DAX Index slid 0.8 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index dropped 0.4 percent.
The Asian markets were mostly lower on Thursday as China's Shanghai Composite plummeted 1.40 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 1.30 percent, Thailand dropped 1.21 percent, Australia gave away 1.09 percent, Indonesia retreated 1.07 percent, Singapore's Straits Times shed 0.89 percent, South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.79 percent, Taiwan lost 0.75 percent and Malaysia eased 0.18 percent. Japan's Nikkei added 0.82 percent.
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