Asian markets mixed amid crypto selloff

Japan’s government reported that exports rose 38% in April from a year earlier while imports climbed nearly 13%, indicating a recovery in overseas demand even as the country weathers its worst bout of coronavirus outbreaks so far.

Exports to the U.S. rose 45% while those to China jumped nearly 34% in a strong rebound after last year’s shocks from lockdowns and other precautions taken to curb the pandemic.

The Nikkei 225
NIK,
+0.25%
regained lost ground, edging 0.1% higher, while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
+1.28%
surged 1%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng
HSI,
-0.74%
skidded 0.7% while the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP,
-0.29%
slipped 0.3%. Seoul’s Kospi
180721,
-0.50%
declined 0.5%. Shares rose in Singapore
STI,
+0.32%
and Jakarta
JAKIDX,
+0.77%
but fell in Taiwan
Y9999,
-0.72%.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.29%
dropped 0.3% to 4,115.68 after recovering from a 1.6% slide earlier in the day. The benchmark index is on track for its second weekly loss in a row.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.48%
fell 0.5% to 33,896.04. The Nasdaq
COMP,
-0.03%
fared better than the rest of the market, shedding less than 0.1%, to 13,299.74.

Digital currencies fell sharply after China’s banking association issued a warning Wednesday over the risks associated with digital currencies.

Bitcoin’s
BTCUSD,
+3.45%
price was down 6.2% to $38,140, well below its all-time high of over $64,800 reached a month ago, according to the crypto news site Coindesk. It swung in a huge range of as low as $30,202 and as high as $43,621 over the course of the day.

That the headline out of China rattled crypto investors suggests the market was already weak, said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at All Star Charts.

“If bitcoin had been holding up better, a headline like that would be dismissed more readily, but it comes at a time when bitcoin was already well off its highs,” he said. “It gave people who were looking for a reason to sell cover.”

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil
CLM21,
+0.39%
added 11 cents to $63.46 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped $2.50 on Wednesday to $63.35 per barrel. Brent crude
BRNN21,
+0.33%,
the international standard for pricing, rose 9 cents to $66.75 per barrel.

The dollar
USDJPY,
-0.05%
fell to 109.14 Japanese yen from 109.23 yen on Wednesday.