Stock market today: Asian stocks lower after Wall Street holds steady near record highs

HONG KONG — Asian markets were mostly lower on Wednesday after US shares remained close to record levels on a quiet trading day.

US futures and oil prices fell.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% lower to 39,173.50.

Stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai fell after the territory’s finance chief announced a budget aimed at boosting tourism and the property sector. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 16,562.96, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.9% to 2,957.85.

China’s largest private real estate developer Country Garden said on Wednesday it faces a liquidation filing after failing to repay a term loan worth 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($204.5 million). The first hearing in the case is scheduled for May 17.

The move comes after China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted real estate developer, was ordered liquidated following a failed attempt to restructure $300 billion in late January.

The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 was little changed at 7,660.40 after the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday the country’s inflation remained at a two-year low in January, raising hopes the Reserve Bank would cut its benchmark interest rate .

South Korea’s Kospi rose 1% to 2,652.29, while Thailand’s SET fell 0.6%.

On Tuesday the S&The P500 added 0.2% to 5,078.18, just below last week’s all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 38,972.41, and the Nasdaq index rose 0.4% to 16,035.30.

Macy’s climbed 3.4% after reporting better-than-feared results for its latest quarter. It also announced a major reorganization to boost revenue growth.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings rose 19.8% for the biggest gain in the S&P500 after saying it is seeing healthy customer demand.

AutoZone rose 6.7% after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings. Much of the growth last quarter came from stores in Mexico and Brazil.

Zoom Video Communications climbed after beating analysts’ earnings expectations last quarter. It also announced a program to buy back up to $1.5 billion of its shares, sending cash directly to shareholders.

These gainers helped offset a 1.5% decline for Chevron, one of the main reasons for the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s decline. The company warned that Hess’s pending acquisition may be in jeopardy.

Cryptocurrency prices have also moved higher. Bitcoin rose above $57,000 before falling back below the threshold and is already up about a third so far this year.

New exchange-traded funds containing bitcoin have made investing in the cryptocurrency easier, while also boosting sales for Coinbase and others that protect those ETFs’ bitcoins. Coinbase rose 2.7% on Tuesday, bringing year-to-date gains to 14.5%.

Earnings reporting season is coming to an end for major companies in the S&P500, and the hope is that a remarkably solid US economy will help earnings grow this year.

A report Tuesday morning showed orders for durable factory goods last month were weaker than economists expected, but were better than forecast after ignoring airplanes and other transportation items.

A separate report said that confidence among US consumers unexpectedly fell. Confidence was on the rise, and this figure is being closely watched on Wall Street because consumer spending makes up the largest share of the US economy.

On a positive note for investors, the report also showed that inflation expectations among US consumers had fallen somewhat.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude lost 36 cents to $78.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 35 cents to $82.31 a barrel.

The US dollar rose from 150.51 Japanese yen to 150.73 Japanese yen. The euro fell from $1.0843 to $1.0821.