By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were down on Thursday morning, despite better-than-expected . A global selloff in technology shares spilled into the region following the U.S.’s losses overnight, with South Korean internet services provider Kakao Corp . (KS:) tumbling as much as 10% and Australian payment services firm Afterpay  (ASX:) dropped a maximum of 11%.

China’s was down 0.69% by 9:42 PM ET (2:42 AM GMT) and the fell 1.18%. According to earlier data, the December was 53.

Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s (OTC) Ltd. divestment in Sea Ltd. (NYSE:) continues to be a topic of concern for investors. There are fears that similar moves will be made by other companies. For the fourth day in a row, The Nasdaq Gold Dragon China Index which monitors Chinese companies listed in U.S. has fallen.

Hong Kong’s fell 0.70%, with the city tightening its restrictive measures on Wednesday.

Japan’s tumbled 2.20%, with December’s at 52.1. South Korea’s was down 0.32%, with the Korean won falling to its lowest since July 2020.

The Australian dollar dropped 1.77%.

Investors’ focus is also on central banks tightening their monetary policies thanks to persisting concerns about the omicron COVID-19 variant’s threat to global economic recovery and company earnings. Federal Reserve of the United States released Wednesday’s statement, in which it stated that higher inflation and a stronger economy may lead to faster interest rate rises than was expected.

“We are prepping people for volatility,” BMO Family Office deputy chief investment officer Carol Schleif told Bloomberg.

“You had another record double-digit year and yet investors’ mood is pretty dour. The volatility adjustment will likely increase in this year’s second quarter, as there is still a lot of work to be done. You do have a leveling off of some things, improvement in some things, and people are going to be watching both the Fed and company earnings.”

While James Bullard, President of the St. Louis Fed will be speaking at an event in the afternoon and Mary Daly, President of San Francisco Fed, on a separate panel one day later.