AP – Asian stocks were mixed yesterday after stocks advanced on Wall Street and yields jumped in the United States (US) bond market as election-related issues swayed markets worldwide.
US futures fell and oil prices rose. The Japanese yen fell to near a fresh 38-year low, reaching JPY161.67 to the dollar early yesterday.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.1 per cent to 40,074.69, as the weaker yen spurred buying of export-oriented shares.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4 per cent to 7,718.20. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.8 per cent to 2,781.92 despite data from Statistics Korea showing the country’s consumer inflation slowed to an 11-month low in June. Hong Kong’s market was higher after a holiday break on Monday. The Hang Seng climbed 0.3 per cent to 17,775.84 and the Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.1 per cent to 2,995.78.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.6 per cent, while the SET in Bangkok slipped 0.4 per cent.
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent to 5,475.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1 per cent to 39,169.52, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8 per cent to 17,879.30.
Some of the world’s strongest action was across the Atlantic, where the CAC 40 index in Paris jumped as much as 2.8 per cent before settling to a gain of 1.1 per cent. Results from France suggested a far-right political party may not win a decisive majority in the country’s legislative elections.
That bolstered hopes for potential gridlock in the French government, which would prevent a worst-case scenario where a far-right with a clear majority could push policies that would greatly increase the French government’s debt.
This is a big year for elections worldwide, with voters heading to the polls in the United Kingdom later this week and soon elsewhere. In the US, pollsters are measuring the fallout from last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump.
Investors are also eyeing the potential impact from a Supreme Court ruling on Monday that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, likely extending the delay in a criminal case against Donald Trump to after the November election.
Trump Media and Technology Group, whose stock has been rising and falling with Trump’s White House chances, climbed one per cent to USD33.08.
Shares of the company behind Trump’s Truth Social platform, though, are still well below their perch of roughly USD70 reached earlier this year.
Treasury yields jumped, as they did on Friday immediately following the Biden-Trump debate.
