Asian shares slide after more losses on Wall Street

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were lower in Asia on Friday after a late afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street.

Tokyo fell 0.9% after Toyota Motor Corp. announced production cuts due to parts shortages. Other major regional markets also fell. Oil prices slipped, with the U.S. benchmark crude down as much as 2.3%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.78% from 1.83% late Thursday.

Investors are bracing for higher interest rates and stocks are headed for weekly losses in what has so far been a losing month.

Surging coronavirus cases have added to jitters over supply chain problems that are disrupting manufacturing.

Toyota, Japan’s top automaker, said it will suspend production at 11 plants in Japan for three days, on top of reductions planned in February. Those cuts mean it will fall short of the 9 million vehicles planned for the fiscal year through March, despite healthy demand. Its shares fell 2.5% on Friday.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 537 points to 27,522.26 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up 0.6% to 24,812.76. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.8% to 3,526.19.

Hong Kong-traded shares in e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 4.2% after a Chinese-made documentary suggested its financial arm might be implicated in a corruption probe.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney dropped 2.3% to 7,175.80. South Korea's Kospi slid 1.1% to 2,830.82. Thailand's benchmark fell 0.5%.

On Thursday, a late-afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street, sending major indexes deeper into losing territory for the year.

The S&P 500 lost 1.1% to 4,482.73, a three-month low, with nearly 85% of stocks in the index falling. It’s now down 6% for the year.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.3% to 14,154.02, after rising as much as 2.1%. By Wednesday, the index’s...