BANGKOK– Stocks rose mainly in Asia on Friday, with major markets apart from Shanghai and Taiwan posting modest gains.
US futures and oil prices rose.
That followed a split on Wall Street on Thursday, where the general shares and other previously underperforming areas of the market rose, while stocks of superstar Big Tech gave up more of their stellar gains.
On Friday morning, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo gave up earlier gains, falling 0.5% to 37,667.41. The index had fallen 3.3% the day before amid heavy selling across many global markets.
Tokyo’s core consumer price index rose 2.2% in July, hitting a four-month high for the third straight month, adding to expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates from near zero at a policy meeting next week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.2% to 17,040.02, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1% to 2,882.03.
Australia’s S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.9% to 7,935.15, while the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.9% to 2,735.63.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 3.3% when it reopened after markets there were closed on Thursday due to a typhoon, reversing Wednesday’s setback that had pushed the S&The biggest loss for the P 500 since 2022. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. fell 5.6%, matching declines at major technology companies.
In Bangkok, the SET rose 0.6%, while the Sensex in India rose 0.8%.
Thursday is the S&P500 lost 0.5% after the previous day’s decline to close at 5,399.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 39,935.07, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9% to 17,181.72.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks rose 1.3%. It has gained 8.6% for the month, compared with a loss of 1.1% for the S&P 500.
Continued losses for Nvidia and most of the handful of Big Tech stocks that have been primarily responsible for the S&The P500’s record run this year weighed on the market. They had fallen a day earlier after earnings reports from Tesla And Alphabet disappointed investors, raising concerns that the market madness surrounding artificial intelligence technology had driven prices up too high.
Whether it concerns the handful of shares known as the “Magnificent Seven” rise or fall, has a huge impact on Wall Street because they have grown so much in market value. That gives their stock movements extra influence on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
Still, the majority of US stocks rose on Thursday after a surprisingly strong report on the US economy raised hopes for profit from smaller companies other previously unpopular areas of the market.
The economy accelerated growth to an estimated annual rate of 2.8% from April through June. That’s double the rate in the previous quarter, but not high enough to raise concerns about upward pressure on inflation.
An update on the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure is expected later on Friday, but since this largely resumed its delaythe general expectation is that the Federal Reserve to begin cutting key interest rates from their highest level in more than two decades. After Thursday’s report, traders still saw a 100% probability that the Fed would begin doing so in September, according to data from CME Group.
Rate cuts would ease pressure on both the economy and financial markets. Investors believe this would give a big boost to stocks whose profits are more closely tied to the strength of the economy than those of Big Tech.
Airline shares rose Thursday after American Airlines Group and Southwest Airlines Both reported spring earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. Southwest also announced a break with a 50-year tradition: it will assign seats and sell premium seats for customers who want more legroom.
American Airlines rose 4.2% and Southwest Airlines rose 5.5%.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Ford Motor, which tumbled 18.4% after reporting profit that fell short of expectations. net profit decreased partly due to rising warranty and recall costs.
In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 11 cents to $78.39 a barrel early Friday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 13 cents to $81.52 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 153.69 Japanese yen from 153.93 yen. The euro rose to 1.0860 dollars from 1.0847.