Finance
Asian shares rise after Wall Street falls to records
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian markets rose Thursday after Wall Street surged to record levels on Wednesday, as the frenzy over artificial intelligence technology continues to send stocks higher.
US futures were lower as oil prices rose.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.6% to 38,703.51. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 18,437.17 and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% to 3,059.31.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 7,822.00 after Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the country’s trade surplus recovered in April, with exports falling 2.5% and imports 7 fell .2%.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.9%, while shares of contract electronics maker Foxconn lost 1.6%, despite the company reporting its May sales rose 22.1% year-on-year, a record high for the month.
In India, the Sensex added 0.8% after Wednesday’s premier Narendra Modi’s coalition won a majority in parliament in the country’s national elections. In Bangkok, the SET lost 0.2%.
The South Korean markets were closed for a holiday.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2% to 5,354.03, topping the all-time high set two weeks ago. The Nasdaq index rose 2% to 17,187.90 and also set a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which places less emphasis on technology, lagged the market with a gain of 0.2% to 38,807.33.
The rally sent the total market value of Nvidiawhich has become the poster child for the AI boom, which topped $3 trillion for the first time.
Nvidia leads the way because its chips drive much of the flow into AI, and it rose another 5.2% to take its gains for the year to more than 147%.
The chip company also joined Microsoft and Apple as the only U.S. stocks with a combined value of more than $3 trillion. Apple regained that milestone valuation after rising 0.8% Wednesday.
Gains for tech stocks offset a 4.9% decline Money tree, which matched analysts’ earnings expectations, but fell just short of expectations for revenue. The retailer also said it is considering selling or spinning off its Family Dollar business.
The broad retail sector has highlighted the difficulties for lower-income U.S. households trying to keep up with still-high inflation.
Government bond yields fell in the bond market due to mixed economic data. One report said real estate, health care and other companies in the U.S. services sector returned to growth last month, exceeding economists’ expectations. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, the Institute for Supply Management report also notes that prices rose more slowly in May than a month earlier.
Another report suggested that hiring at U.S. non-government employers slowed more than expected last month.
Stocks have been shaky lately after reports showed growth in the U.S. economy is fading under the weight of high interest rates. Wall Street has actually been hoping for such a slowdown because it could reduce inflation and convince the Federal Reserve to make much-needed interest rate cuts.
But it also raises the possibility that the economy will overshoot and enter a recession, which would ultimately hurt stock prices.
Treasury yields fell after weaker-than-expected economic reports raised expectations of upcoming Federal Reserve rate cuts. The yield on the 10-year government bond fell to 4.29% from 4.33% late Tuesday and from 4.60% a week ago.
The next big move for Treasury yields and Wall Street in general could come Friday, when the U.S. government releases its monthly jobs report. That report is much more comprehensive than ADP’s on Wednesday, and economists expect Friday’s data to show a slight increase in overall hiring. Hopes remain that the labor market will slow its growth, but not so much that it will lead to widespread layoffs.
In other trades, benchmark U.S. crude rose 34 cents to $74.41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 34 cents to $78.75 a barrel.
The US dollar rose from 156.10 yen to 156.14 Japanese yen. The euro rose from $1.0868 to $1.0877.
