Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher as Chinese markets reopen after Lunar New Year

BANGKOK– Stocks were mainly higher in Asia after Chinese markets reopened on Monday after a long New Year’s holiday.

US futures rose slightly as oil prices fell. In the United States, markets are closed on Monday for President’s Day.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 16,192.24 on heavy selling in technology and real estate stocks, despite a flurry of announcements by Chinese state banks of plans for billions of dollars in loans for real estate projects.

Major developer Country Garden fell 5.6% and Sino-Ocean Group Holding fell 6.5%. China Vanke lost 4.6%.

The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.8% to 2,889.32.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 0.1% to 38,443.35.

Shares of major video game maker Nintendo fell 5.1% after unconfirmed reports that the successor to the Switch console would not be delivered within this year.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Australian S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% and the Kospi in Seoul rose 1.3% to 2,682.15. Bangkok’s SET rose 0.2% and India’s Sensex rose 0.1%.

Friday on Wall Street, the S&The P500 fell 0.5% from its all-time high a day earlier. It closed at 5,005.57. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% to 38,627.99 and the Nasdaq index fell 0.8% to 15,775.65.

A report this morning on wholesale inflation provided the latest reminder that the battle against rising prices is still not over. Prices rose more in January than economists expected, and the figures followed a similar report earlier this week that showed the cost of living for US consumers rose more than forecast.

The data closed the door on hopes that the Federal Reserve could start cutting rates in March, as traders had hoped. It also discouraged expectations that there would be Fed action even in May to ease conditions in the economy and financial markets.

Higher interest rates and yields make borrowing more expensive, slow the economy and depress investment prices.

In the meantime, hopes are that the economy will remain resilient despite the challenge of high interest rates. That would allow companies to achieve earnings growth, which could help support stock prices.

A preliminary report suggested Thursday that sentiment among U.S. consumers is improving, but not as much as economists had hoped. This is crucial because consumer spending makes up the largest share of the economy.

In other trading Monday, U.S. benchmark crude lost 60 cents to $77.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, lost 62 cents to $82.85 a barrel.

The US dollar fell from 150.16 yen to 149.97 Japanese yen. The euro rose from $1.0778 to $1.0780.