Global equities extended losses into a third day on Friday as a selloff on Wall Street intensified, with precious metals and cryptocurrencies gripped by wrenching volatility.

In Asia, Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 530 points, or 2 percent, lower at 26,354.

The China enterprises index was 171 points, or 1.9 percent, down at 8,922 while the tech index was 131 points, or 2.4 percent, down at 5,275.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index opened down 0.87 percent at 4,040. The Shenzhen Component Index opened 1.09 percent lower at 13,801 while the ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, was down 1.15 percent at 3,222.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tumbled 1 percent to mark a second day of losses, led by a 5 percent dive for South Korea's Kospi which triggered a brief trading halt shortly after the open.

S&P 500 e-mini futures slid 0.2 percent and Nasdaq e-mini futures fell 0.4 percent.

"Investors are questioning their commitment to the pillars that have underpinned markets over the past six months: AI, crypto, and precious metals," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at ‍IG in Sydney. "This raises the odds of a deeper unwind."

Stocks sold off overnight on fears that ⁠new AI models may start to eat into the profits of software firms, with the S&P 500 turning negative for the year as ‍fears around the labour market grew.

Layoffs announced by US employers surged in January to the highest level for the month in 17 years, a survey from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed on Thursday.

Precious metals rallied off their lows but were still down for the day, with gold falling 0.1 percent at US$4,764 and silver plunging as much as 10 percent before recovering. The white metal was last down 1.4 percent ‌at US$70.26.

Cryptocurrency markets reversed losses after breaching several milestones in a US$2 trillion wipeout on Thursday, with bitcoin surging 3.7 percent to $65,446 after earlier falling up to 4.9 percent to a low of US$60,008.

Ether ‍was last up 4.4 percent at US$1,928, overturning an earlier 5.1 percent decline.

The S&P ‌500 software and services index dropped 4.6 percent, having shed about US$1 ‌trillion ‌in market value since January 28, in a selloff dubbed "software-mageddon".

"You've seen a lot of these big crowded positions being unwound very, very aggressively and that's led to massive flows," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group in Melbourne. "We're getting to a stage where we could see, later this year, casualties.

"Certain businesses – not the Mag7 – but for some of the smaller businesses, the capital markets may not be so kind," he said, referring to the so-called Magnificent Seven mega-cap technology stocks. (Reuters/Xinhua)