Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher, tracking gains on Wall Street
TOKYO — Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday, tracking gains on Wall Street, although Tokyo’s benchmark fell slightly.
US futures and oil prices were little changed.
Stocks in Shanghai and the smaller Shenzhen market rose after Chinese regulators issued another round of market-boosting policies, while Hong Kong gave up early gains.
The upward momentum following Tuesday’s announcement that a sovereign wealth fund was ramping up purchases of exchange-traded funds appeared to have faded. A report that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would meet with officials to discuss markets remained unconfirmed and no mention was made of such a meeting.
These developments had pushed Chinese shares, including those in Hong Kong, sharply higher on Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.3% lower at 16,096.10, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.4% to 2,829.70.
Investors sold technology and real estate stocks that had risen during the markets’ brief rally. The mostly small-cap stocks traded in Shenzhen’s southern China market rose 1.4%, and the CSI 1000, an index that tracks highly volatile “snowball derivatives,” rose 4.2%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.1% to end at 36,119.92, despite gains for companies that have reported strong financial results, including Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp., which rose 4%.
The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 7,615.80. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.4% to 2,611.02.
Wall Street edged higher on a quiet Tuesday as the bond market calmed after some sharp swings.
The S&The P500 rose 0.2% to 4,954.23, nearly returning to its all-time high hit late last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 38,521.36, and the Nasdaq index rose 0.1% to 15,609.00.
Stocks have been under some pressure lately as evidence continues to emerge that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut rates as soon as traders had hoped. The economy has remained remarkably solid even as the Fed has raised rates to slow the economy and reduce inflation. That has boosted some forecasts for the first rate cut from March into the summer.
If looser interest rates won’t boost stock prices in the short term, the hope is that strong corporate earnings will.
GE Healthcare Technologies performed best in the S that day&P500 and rose 11.6% after reporting healthier earnings and revenues for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Palantir Technologies, one of several Wall Street companies getting excited about artificial intelligence technology, rose 30.8% after its latest quarter results were roughly in line with analysts’ expectations.
Streaming music and podcast platform Spotify rose 3.9% after reporting stronger-than-expected growth in its subscriber base, even as revenue missed analysts’ targets.
These gains helped offset an 11.5% decline for FMC, whose products help protect crops. The company’s profits and revenue fell short of analyst expectations, partly due to the drought in Brazil.
Now that the earnings season is about halfway through for the major companies in the S&P 500 index, there are still many heavyweights reporting this week, including CVS Health, The Walt Disney Co. and PepsiCo.
On the bond market, yields on ten-year government bonds fell after interest rates rose in recent days. The interest rate fell from 4.17% at the end of Monday to 4.09%.
While a delay in rate cuts will hurt the stock market, especially after very high expectations for rate cuts contributed to a protracted recovery, strong economic data also benefits investors. They should mean higher profits for companies.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude rose 2 cents to $73.33 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2 cents to $78.57.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose from 147.95 yen to 148.04 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0757, up from $1.0755.