Asian stocks fell on Thursday, dragged lower after the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States spooked Wall Street overnight, while a bout of risk aversion pushed down yields and put the dollar's recent rally on pause.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.2 percent, and Tokyo's Nikkei shed 1.3 percent.
Hong Kong streets were calm early on Thursday while police largely kept their distance from tens of thousands of mostly young people who have continued to protest for nearly a week.
US Stocks Dip
U.S. stocks dropped more than 1 percent on Wednesday as the Ebola news scared investors, economic data pointed to uneven growth, and the Russell 2000 index of small-cap shares entered correction territory.
The dollar traded at 109.025 yen, suffering a sharp fall on declining U.S. Treasury yields after poking above the psychological 110 threshold the previous day for the first time since 2008.
The euro stood little changed at $1.2628 after crawling away from a two-year low of $1.2571 that hit earlier in the week.
In commodities, crude oil posted a modest rebound after declining sharply through much of the week on weak economic signals from China and Europe and ample worldwide supply.