Stock market today: Asian shares mostly rise, boosted by Wall Street records as Tesla zooms
TOKYO — Asian stocks rose broadly on Wednesday after Tesla shares surged more than 10%, helping U.S. benchmarks hit new records.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.3% to close at 40,580.76. Australia’s S&The P/ASX 200 rose almost 0.3% to 7,739.90. South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.5% to 2,794.71. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 17,956.55, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.4% to 2,982.38.
Asian investors cheered hopes of a US rate cut, but some traders remained aloof ahead of US Independence Day on Thursday.
âOn the radar is Japanâs Nikkei, which could continue its run above the 40,000 mark, with a strong presence from technology overnight, while the Japanese yen continues to trade at a 38-year low,â said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.80 Japanese yen from 161.44 yen. The euro was worth $1.0752, little changed from $1.0743. Among technology-related stocks in Tokyo, Kyocera Corp. rose 3.1 percent, while Murata Manufacturing Co. rose 6.4 percent.
On Wall Street, the S&The P 500 rose 0.6% to 5,509.01, surpassing its all-time high set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 39,331.85, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8% to 18,028.76, surpassing its own record set a day earlier.
Tesla took the lead with a 10.2% jump after the electric vehicle maker posted a milder decline in sales for the spring than analysts had expected. Modest profits for other large, influential shares also contributed to the market’s rise, including a 1.6% increase for Apple.
Stocks got a boost from lower government bond yields after the head of the Federal Reserve comments that investors saw as a signal of possible rate cuts later this year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave a nod to improvements in inflation data after some disappointingly high readings earlier this year.
âWe just want to understand that the levels we see are a true reflection of underlying inflation,â he said during a panel discussion at the European Central Bank’s monetary policy conference in Sintra, Portugal.
Investors are hoping inflation will slow enough to convince the Fed to cut its key interest rate, which is now at its highest level in more than two decades and is putting the brakes on the economy.
Nvidia, one of this yearâs biggest stars, kept Wall Streetâs gains in check, falling 1.3% but still up nearly 147.7% year to date.
Eli Lilly fell 0.8% and U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk fell 1.7% after President Biden criticized the prices the companies charge for their weight-loss and diabetes drugs in an op-ed for USA Today.
The most anticipated economic data of the week comes on Friday, when the U.S. government reports the total number of jobs employers added in June. Before then, the U.S. stock market will have a shortened trading day on Wednesday and Thursday, the Fourth of July holiday.
Government bond yields have been under pressure lately due to politics. Last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump forced traders to take steps ahead of a potential Republican victory in November. That included raising Treasury yields, in part because of the possibility of policies that would further increase U.S. government debt.
The 10-year yield is still well above the 4.29% level seen on Thursday evening, before the debate.
On commodity markets, U.S. oil prices eventually eased slightly after hitting their highest price since April. Crude prices rose largely on expectations of strong summer demand and the possibility of hurricanes damaging oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Beryl is racing through the Caribbean.
U.S. benchmark crude rose 33 cents to $83.14 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 38 cents to $86.62 a barrel.