HONG KONG — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday after technology stocks sent Wall Street mostly lower on Tuesday as investors awaited chipmaker Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report.
The report, due later today, will put stock markets in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan on alert, as these three regions accounted for more than 45% of Nvidia’s revenue in the third quarter.
US futures fell as oil prices rose.
The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 lost almost 0.2% to 38,300.00.
Japan’s exports rose as much as 11.9% in January from a year earlier, driven by strong demand for chip-making machinery in China and solid export gains to the United States and Europe, data showed Wednesday. have been released.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.4% to 16,642.00, driven by gains in the Tech Index, which rose 3.6%. The Shanghai Composite rose almost 2.0% to 2,979.30.
The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 fell 0.7% to 7,608.40, despite Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing the country’s wage index rose 4.2% compared to the same period a year earlier, which the highest recorded annual increase since early 2009.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.2% to 2,652.62.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the S&P500 fell 0.6% to 4,975.51. It is only the second losing week in the last sixteen. The losses pushed the benchmark index further below last week’s record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 38,563.80. The Nasdaq index fell 0.9% to 15,630.78.
Technology stocks, especially chipmakers, were the biggest drag on the market. Nvidia fell 4.4%. It’s still the S&The P500’s biggest gainer so far this year, up about 40%.
The market fell last week after several economic data suggested that inflation remains stubbornly high. That halted a rally that started in late October based on hopes that inflation will cool enough to allow the Federal Reserve to cut rates.
“The narrative that drove us to these levels is being strongly questioned,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
Currently, Wall Street now expects the first rate cut to occur in June, months later than previously expected. Investors will have to wait until next week for another major update on inflation. That’s when the government will release its monthly report on personal consumption and spending, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure.
“The key question we need to answer now is whether inflation has bottomed out, and if so, is it going sideways or going back up,” Samana said.
Investors have had a relatively light week of economic news. Home sales data will be reported Thursday. The housing market remains tight as demand for housing continues to exceed supply. Mortgage rates remain high, although they are declining from their most recent peak in late October, when the average rate on a 30-year mortgage was 7.79%.
More than 80% of companies in the S&P500 have reported their latest results. Analysts polled by FactSet expect total earnings growth of about 3.3% for the fourth quarter and earnings growth of about 3.6% for the current quarter.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude added 13 cents to $77.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 15 cents to $82.49 a barrel.
The US dollar rose from 150.01 yen to 150.09 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0814, up from $1.0807.