BANGKOK– Shares in Asia were mixed on Thursday after a modest rise on Wall Street kept the market on track for a fourth straight weekly gain.
Markets in Japan and the US are closed for holidays.
Oil prices fell by about $1 a barrel after OPEC postponed a meeting to discuss production cuts until next week. The oil cartel maintains the tight crude oil market through production cuts. These cuts are expected to continue after oil prices fell to nearly $100 a barrel from a peak in the summer.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng pared early losses to gain 0.5% to 17,818.25, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.6% to 3,061.86.
Markets in Greater China have been reeling in response to efforts by Chinese regulators to prop up the ailing real estate market. Shares in troubled developer Country Garden rose 16% amid reports the company has been included on a list of property companies eligible for funding support. Shares of Sino-Ocean Group Holding rose 27%.
The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 lost 0.6% to 7,029.20. In South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.1% higher to 2,514.96.
Bangkok’s SET lost 1% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.1%. Mumbai’s Sensex opened 0.1%.
On Wednesday the S&The P500 rose 0.4% to 4,556.62. The Dow Jones rose 0.5% to 35,273.03 and the Nasdaq gained 0.5% to 14,265.86.
Trading was quiet on Thursday ahead of Thanksgiving. The American stock exchanges are open half a day on Friday.
Technology and communications services stocks accounted for much of the gain for the S&P500. Microsoft rose 1.3% and Google parent Alphabet added 1.1%.
Broadcom fell 0.9% after announcing it expects to close its $69 billion deal to acquire VMWare on Wednesday after clearing all regulatory hurdles.
A 0.9% drop in oil prices weighed on energy companies. Energy giant Exxon Mobil fell 0.4% and oilfield services company Halliburton fell 0.8%.
Nvidia fell 2.5% despite easily beating analysts’ profit and revenue expectations. Export restrictions to China are putting pressure on the company, although its shares have more than tripled this year on booming demand for chips for artificial intelligence applications.
The profit figures continue to roll in. Department store operator Nordstrom fell 4.6% after lowering its profit forecast for the year. Clothing retailer Guess fell 12.3% after cutting its financial forecasts.
The interest rate on government bonds was relatively stable. The yield on the 10-year government bond rose to 4.41% from 4.40% late Tuesday. The yield on the 2-year government bond fell to 4.88% from 4.89% late Tuesday.
A University of Michigan consumer confidence survey shows that confidence remains strong. Wall Street has been closely watching consumer spending and confidence reports for more clues about the future trajectory of the economy.
Predictions for a possible recession have been pushed forward further to 2024, while also softening. The rate of inflation continues to decline, consumer spending remains solid and the economy is generally moving along. That has fueled hopes and bets that the Federal Reserve is done raising rates and could soon consider cutting rates.
“Prices in Turkey cost about 5.6% less than last year, the filling mix costs almost 3% less, pie crusts are almost 5% cheaper and cranberry prices have fallen by more than 18%,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote in a comment. “It is said that a Thanksgiving feast for an average of ten people costs less than $62 – that’s less than $6.2 per person, down about 4.5% from last year.”
Fed officials have said the outlook for the economy remains uncertain and that they will make upcoming interest rate decisions based on incoming reports. The Fed will get another major update next week when the government releases its October report on a key inflation measure tracked by the central bank.
In other trading Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude lost 67 cents to $76.43 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the price fell 67 cents to $77.10 a barrel, but fell to $73.50 in trading.
Brent crude, the international price standard, lost 84 cents to $81.12 a barrel.
The US dollar fell from 149.56 yen to 149.01 Japanese yen. The euro rose from $1.0889 to $1.0913.