Stock market today: Asian shares mostly fall ahead of central bank meetings

TOKYO — Asian shares fell broadly on Tuesday in cautious trading ahead of central bank meetings around the world.

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan hold monetary policy meetings this week.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 pared earlier losses to rise 0.2% to 38,525.95 in midday trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 7,953.20. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1% to 2,738.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 17,014.17, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.4% to 2,879.30.

“Markets may find it difficult to position this week’s central bank meetings,” Jing Yi Tan of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

In Japan, the government reported that the unemployment rate was 2.5% in June, down slightly from 2.6% the previous month and the first improvement in five months.

US stock indexes ended with mixed results on Monday, kicking off a week of earnings reports. The Most Influential Companies on Wall Street and a Federal Reserve Meeting about interest rates.

The S&The P 500 rose slightly, 0.1%, to 5,463.54, after its first straight weekly losses since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 40,539.93, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1% to 17,370.20.

ON Semiconductor helped lead the market with an 11.5% jump after the supplier to auto and other industries reported stronger spring earnings than analysts had expected. McDonald’s rose 3.7% despite reporting earnings and revenue for its latest quarter that did not meet the predictionsAnalysts said performance at U.S. restaurants was not as bad as some investors had feared.

Oil and gas companies were among the market’s heaviest weights after crude prices fell again two months ago. ConocoPhillips lost 1.6% and Exxon Mobil fell 1% on concerns about how much crude China’s flagging economy will burn.

Several of the biggest names on Wall Street are scheduled to report earnings later this week: Microsoft on Tuesday, Meta Platforms on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Their stock moves carry extra weight on Wall Street because they are among the market’s largest by total value.

Such Big Tech stocks drove the S&P 500 to dozens of records this year, partly at the behest of investors madness surrounding artificial intelligence technology, but they lost momentum this month amid criticism that they have become too expensive, and as alternatives began to look more attractive. Last week, investors found earnings reports from Tesla And Alphabet disappointing, raising concerns that other stocks in the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group of Big Tech stocks would also fail to impress.

Smaller shares have increased based on expectations that the delay inflation the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates. But that pattern unraveled a bit on Monday, as the majority of Big Tech stocks rose, while smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index fell 1.1%. The index is still up a market-leading 9.2% for the month so far.

The Fed is holding a policy meeting on interest rates this week, with an announcement to follow on Wednesday. Virtually no one is expecting a move then, but the general expectation is that the Fed will begin easing at its next meeting in September.

Treasury yields remained relatively stable in the bond market, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling to 4.17% from 4.19% on Friday night. In April, it was as high as 4.70%.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude fell 39 cents to $75.42 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 37 cents to $79.41.

In currency trading, the US dollar rose slightly to 155.02 Japanese yen from 154.00 yen. The euro was worth $1.0824, down from $1.0826.