However, mainland Chinese stocks were some of the most stable in the region, something of a surprise given power outages and systemic financial risk.
Japan will have a new prime minister come Monday. So what does Fumio Kishida, Japan's Obama-era foreign minister, bring to the table?
Japan's ruling party will elect a new leader, and therefore prime minister, by month's end, likely boosting Japanese equities even further.
The Tokyo Games blew their budget - but proved infectious for all the right sporting reasons, rather than anything else.
The Olympics... they're a year late, and finally here.
It's an unheard-of event in corporate Japan.
Big-money backers calculate how vocal to make their support for the Summer Games, which some surveys show are unpopular with the Japanese public.
The electronics maker is winnowing its board and executive ranks amid an investigation ensnaring Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Eisai is working on another promising drug candidate to combat Alzheimer's disease, and will benefit from a split of the profits for Aduhelm.
Blinken says China is acting 'more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad.'