TOKYO — Asian shares were mostly down on Tuesday, despite a rally on Wall Street in stocks seen as likely to benefit the most Donald Trump’s re-election as American president.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 reversed early gains to fall 0.6% to 39,289.14 in afternoon trading, pressured by uncertainty over how Trump’s policies, including tariffs, could affect local industries.
The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 lost 0.1% to 8,255.60. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.6% to 2,490.19.
Chinese tech stocks have fallen lately, while investors also have their eyes on upcoming earnings reports from China.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.9% to 19,839.88, the first time the index fell below 20,000 points since China announced a stimulus package in September. The Shanghai Composite lost 1.2% to 3,429.42.
On Wall Street, the S&The P500 rose 0.1%, recovering from its level best week of the year after Trump’s victory and an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve to strengthen the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 304 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1%.
Tesla was the strongest force pushing up on the S&P500 after a 9.1% increase. Its leader, Elon Musk, has become a close ally of Trump, and its shares rose nearly 15% the day after the election and have continued to rise.
Several pieces of what is known as the “Trump trade” also helped stimulate the market as investors try to identify which companies will be winners under a second Trump term. JPMorgan Chase rose 1%, and financial stocks helped lead the market again on expectations for stronger economic growth, less regulation from Washington and an increase in mergers and acquisitions.
A White House that is friendlier to major partnerships has helped Wall Street speculate on, for example, a merger between insurers Cigna Group and Humana. Tensions are so high that Cigna said Monday it is not pursuing a deal with Humana. Shares of Cigna rose 7.3% and shares of Humana fell 2%.
Shares of companies that focus more on the U.S. economy also rose more than the rest of the market, including a 1.5% rally for smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index as they are seen as benefiting more from the Trump’s America First policy than the big one. multinational companies.
They helped offset a 1.6% decline for Nvidia, the market’s heaviest weight.
Such Big Tech stocks have skyrocketed on excitement about artificial intelligence technology, and they had risen in value almost regardless of what the economy was doing. Now, however, critics say their prices seem too expensive, and investors are finding more interesting buys in companies that could benefit more from Trump’s second term.
A decline for Nvidia would be an especially hard blow, as its massive valuation of nearly $3.6 trillion makes it one of the most influential stocks on the S.&P500 and other indices.
Some of the sharpest swings were in the crypto marketwhere Bitcoin rose above $87,000 for the first time. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies in general and promised to make his country the crypto capital of the world. According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin has reached an all-time high of $87,491.
Another of Trump’s trades was a rise in Treasury yields as traders anticipate potentially higher economic growth, U.S. government debt and a rise in U.S. Treasury yields inflation due to Trump’s policies. But trading in the bond market was closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day.
Treasury yields have generally risen since September, largely because the US economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can remain solid while the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates to keep the labor market going while it is being helped inflation almost fallen to the 2% target.
All in all, the S&The P500 rose 5.81 points to 6,001.35 on Monday. The Dow Jones gained 304.14 to 44,293.13 and the Nasdaq index rose 11.99 to 19,298.76.
In energy trading, U.S. crude fell 20 cents to $67.84 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 15 cents to $71.68 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar fell from 153.72 yen to 153.65 Japanese yen. The euro was at $1.0634, down from $1.0660.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.