Asian stocks follow Wall St lower ahead of US jobs update

.75 billion to strengthen its financial position amid concerns about higher interest rates and the economy. Bank of America, Citigroup and other big banks fell sharply.,The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.7% to 32,254.86. The Nasdaq composite sank 2.1% to 11,338.35.,Powell said earlier in the week the Fed was ready to impose more big rate hikes if necessary. That added to fears the Fed and other central banks might push the global economy into at least a brief recession to extinguish inflation.,A government report on Thursday showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits

last week jumped by the most in five months but layoffs are low.,Yields on the two-year Treasury, which tends to track expectations for future Fed action, eased to 4.87% from about 5.05% just before the unemployment report’s release. It had been hovering at its highest level in 16 years.,A report Wednesday showed the number of job openings

advertised across the country last month was higher than economists expected.,Traders expect the Fed to raise its benchmark lending rate by an unusually large margin of 0.5 percentage points at its March 22 meeting. That is up from an expectation of 0.25 points before Powell’s comments this week, according to CME Group.,U.S. inflation edged up to 5.4% in January, well above the Fed target of 2%. The central bank has already raised its key rate to a range of 4.50% to 4.75%, up from close to zero at the start of 2022, its fastest set of hikes in decades.,Companies have been cautious about their prospects through 2023.,General Motors fell 4.9% after joining a long list of companies with plans to trim its workforce amid worries about a recession. Many companies are coming off of a weak fourth quarter.,Economists expect profits to fall through the first half of 2023.,JPMorgan Chase fell 5.4% after the bank sued its former executive

Jes Staley, alleging that he aided in hiding Jeffrey Epstein’s yearslong sex abuse and trafficking in order to keep the financier as a client.,In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude lost 41 cents to $75.31 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 94 cents the previous session to $75.72. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, declined 33 cents to $81.26 per barrel in London. It sank