Asia-Pacific stocks tumble, tracking Wall Street declines; oil prices down 2%

SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets tumbled on Friday, tracking declines on Wall Street overnight. Meanwhile, oil prices slipped from their 2014 highs earlier in the week, falling about 2%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2%, while the Topix was down 1.54%. Auto and tech stocks fell across the board, but pared some losses. Toyota was down more than 3%, Mazda dropped nearly 5% and Mitsubishi fell more than 4%. In tech stocks, Sony was down more than 2%, and Softbank declined 2%. Japan’s inflation data released on Friday showed that core consumer prices rose 0.5% in December compared to a year earlier, as fuel and raw material costs increased, according to Reuters. The increase was for a second month straight at the fastest pace in nearly two years, Reuters said.