© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man stands on an overpass with an electronic board showing Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes, at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
By Tom Westbrook and Stanley White
SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) – Stock markets struggled for traction on Thursday after a jittery session on Wall Street where cryptocurrencies crashed and a hint of tapering talk from the U.S. Federal Reserve drove selling in the bond market while lifting the safe-haven dollar.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.04%. Stocks in South Korea fell 0.34%, and Hong Kong’s fell 0.72%, but rose 0.43%.
were up 0.64%, {{172|German DA also rose 0.64%, and futures were up 0.88%, pointing to a positive start to the European session.
, which plunged as much as 30% to $30,000 overnight, was struggling for support around $39,000. U.S. stock futures were flat.
Commodities also fell, Treasuries nursed losses while the dollar held overnight gains.
Fed minutes published on Wednesday said “a number” of officials thought…
