Asian Markets Tumble Amid Volatile Bond and Currency Markets

Asian stock markets fell on Friday as investors struggled to cope with wild swings in bond and currency markets ahead of key US jobs data. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields hit a 20-year high of 5.34% after capping the biggest quarterly rise in 32 years, but later retreated.

Fiscal worries in France pushed the spread between French and German sovereign bond yields above 140 basis points, the widest since 2012, rattling European stocks and hitting the euro hard. The single currency slid to a 5-year low of $1.1215 against the US dollar.