Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street breaks losing streak

AP Business Writer

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher Tuesday in Asia after U.S. stocks closed broadly higher, as Big Tech stocks took back some of their recent sharp declines.

U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices were little changed.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 recovered from early losses, edging 0.1% higher to 39,621.28.

Chinese markets declined, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down 0.1% to 17,620.16. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.6% to 2,946.63.

China’s central bank cut two key interest rates by 10 basis points on Monday, moving to ease credit and pep up the economy, following a major policymaking meeting of the ruling Communist Party that focused on longer-term reforms. But both so far have done little to boost the markets, where investors are looking for more ambitious short-term action to spur faster growth.

“Size matters. And obviously, a 10 (basis point) cut is not particularly inspiring. Certainly, nowhere in the vicinity of ‘big gun’ stimulus, which is arguably what the economy needs,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.5% to 2,777.98, while the S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.7% to 7,987.90.

Taiwan’s Taiex surged 2.3% as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. gained 3.4%, rebounding from recent losses.

In Bangkok, the SET fell 0.7%.

Reports on corporate profits and U.S. economic growth may hog the market’s spotlight this week. Analysts are expecting companies in the S&P 500 to deliver the strongest profit growth for the latest quarter since the end of 2021, according to FactSet.

Besides Alphabet and Tesla, dozens of other big U.S. companies will also report their latest quarterly results this upcoming week, including Coca-Cola, Ford and American Airlines.

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 1.1% to 5,564.41, breaking a three-day losing streak. It was the first gain for the benchmark index since it set an all-time high on July 16.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to 40,415.44, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.6% to 18,007.57.

The gains were broad, with more than three-quarters of the stocks in the S&P 500 closing higher, although tech stocks accounted for much of the rally.

Nvidia rose 4.8%, and other Big Tech stocks advanced. They had sputtered amid criticism they’d grown too expensive after rocketing so high and pushing Wall Street to records. Two of them, Alphabet and Tesla, will report on Tuesday how much profit they earned during the spring in a big test. Alphabet rose 2.3% and Tesla gained 5.1%.

Treasury yields mostly rose in the bond market after President Joe Biden said he won’t run for re-election. The move could cause the unwind of some of the market’s “Trump trade,” which took off after Biden’s weak performance in a debate last month raised expectations for a win by former President Donald Trump.

Some delays at airports continued Monday after massive disruptions from a global technology outage that appeared to have been largely resolved over the weekend.

A faulty software update caused havoc worldwide and led to the grounding by almost all airlines of a number of flights. The vast majority of cancellations early Monday were Delta Air Lines flights. Delta’s stock lost 3.5%.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack and that it had deployed a fix for a faulty update sent to computers running Microsoft Windows.

CrowdStrike’s stock fell another 13.5% Monday after taking an 11.1% hit on Friday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.26% from 4.24% late Friday. Shorter-term yields were relatively steady. The two-year yield was unchanged at 4.52%, where it was late Friday.

Other corners of the market that could have swung sharply on uncertainty about the November election after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, were also mostly quiet.

The U.S. dollar was relatively steady, falling to 156.33 Japanese yen early Tuesday from 157.04 yen late Monday. The euro rose to $1.0895 from $1.0891.

In energy dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil gave up 1 cent to $78.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, gained 3 cent to $82.43 per barrel.

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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.