AP – Asian shares were trading mixed yesterday, after Wall Street recovered some losses from the day before.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 momentarily reached a record high in early trading but slipped later to finish at 39,598.71, down 1.2 per cent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose nearly 0.4 per cent to 7,763.70. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 per cent to 2,645.62. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.0 per cent to 16,269.12, while the Shanghai Composite declined 0.3 per cent to 3,031.72.
“The positive handover from Wall Street, alongside lower Treasury yields and a weaker US dollar, may offer some relief as Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair’s testimony failed to drive much hawkish deviation from his usual script,” said market analyst Yeap Jun Rong at IG.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said again that cuts to interest rates may be coming this year, but that the Fed needs more data showing inflation is cooling before it will act.
The S&P 500 rose 26.11 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5,104.76. The benchmark index fell one per cent a day prior.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 75.86 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 38,661.05. The Nasdaq composite rose 91.95, or 0.6 per cent, to 16,031.54.
Nvidia was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 as it rose 3.2 per cent.
Meta Platforms also steadied itself and rose 1.2 per cent a day after sliding 1.6 per cent.
They’re among the market’s most influential stocks because of their massive size. Big Tech stocks have been disproportionately responsible for the S&P 500’s run to records on expectations for strong continued growth. That has raised the bar of expectations for them to justify their high stock prices, leading to some painful drops earlier this week.
CrowdStrike jumped 10.8 per cent after the cybersecurity company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
It also gave a forecast for upcoming profit that topped Wall Street’s estimates.
Shares of the troubled New York Community Bancorp bounced around and eventually finished 7.5 per cent higher after it announced a lifeline of more than USD1 billion from a group of investors, including former United States (US) Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin under president Donald Trump. It nearly halved earlier in trading before being halted for news. The regional bank has lost 66 per cent of its value this year amid falling values in commercial real estate and acquisitions it made.
An index of regional bank stocks pared most its losses following the announcement.
The KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking index slipped 0.4 per cent after being down as much as 3.1 per cent earlier in the afternoon.
As always, Wall Street scrutinised each of Powell’s words for hints about when the Fed could begin cutting its main interest rate, which is at its highest level since 2001. Such a move would release pressure on the financial system and goose prices for investments.
Powell said again that high interest rates are putting downward pressure on the economy to get inflation under control.
