Investing.com - Shares in Asia dropped on Friday as a senior North Korean official suggested Pyongyang could test a nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said on Friday he believes the North could consider a hydrogen bomb test on the Pacific Ocean of an unprecedented scale, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Ri was speaking to reporters in New York when he was asked what North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had meant when he threatened in an earlier statement the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history" against the United States. North Korea could consider a hydrogen bomb test, Ri said, although he did not know Kim's exact thoughts, Yonhap reported.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.29%, while South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.71%. In Greater China, The Shanghai Composite eased 0.54% and the Hang Seng index declied 0.79%.
Overnight, the nine-day rally on Wall Street came to an end as a slump in shares of Apple weighed on the broader market while better-than-expected economic reports on the labor market and manufacturing did little to lift sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower at 22359.23. The S&P 500 closed 0.30% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6422.69, down 0.52%.
Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AAPL) dropped for the second straight day, adding to selloff in the tech sector, amid reports that the iPhone maker was experiencing problems with the latest iteration of its smartwatch dubbed the Apple Watch Series 3.
The tech tumble overshadowed a duo of upbeat reports on the labor market and manufacturing sector.
The Philadelphia Fed said Thursday its manufacturing index rose to a reading of 23.8, a three-month high, from 18.9 in August.
Initial jobless claims decreased by 23,000 to 259,000 in the week ended Sept. 16, beating forecasts of a 18,000 decline, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.
On the political front, investors mulled over a possible uptick in geopolitical uncertainty after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a fresh round of sanctions to curb North Korea’s nuclear missile program.
"Today I'm announcing a new executive order, just signed, that significantly expands our authority to target individual companies, financial institutions, that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea," Trump told reporters ahead of a luncheon meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.