Bangkok, Jun 18 : Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after US stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher.
US futures were flat and oil prices declined.
This week has few top-tier economic reports apart from an update on Tuesday on how much American shoppers are spending at US retailers and a preliminary look Friday at the state of US business activity. US markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.9 per cent to 38,441.90. Toyota Motor Corp., a market heavyweight, gained 0.6 per cent after its shareholders rejected a proposal to force Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker’s founder, to leave his post as chairman of the board.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.2 per cent to 17,903.06 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4 per cent to 3,026.61.
In South Korea, the Kospi advanced 0.8 per cent to 2,766.22.
In Sydney, the S and P/ASX 200 jumped 1 per cent to 7,776.20 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its key interest rate unchanged.
“While the Bank at its May meeting noted that inflation had fallen more gradually than expected, it today described it as persistent,’ emphasising that headline inflation as well as inflation excluding volatile items and travel had not fallen any further between April and December,” Capital Economics said in a commentary.
Admittedly, the Bank noted that momentum in economic activity is weak, with the statement citing slow GDP growth, a rise in the unemployment rate and slower-than-expected wages growth, it said.
India’s Sensex rose 0.4 per cent to 77,291.77.
On Monday, US stocks rose to records as gains for technology companies keep pushing the market higher.
The S and P 500 rose 0.8 per cent, beating an all-time high it set on Thursday. It closed at 5,473.23. The Dow gained 0.5 per cent to 38,778.10, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1 per cent to 17,857.02.
Autodesk jumped 6.5 per cent for one of the market’s biggest gains after an investment firm said it will try to delay the software company’s annual meeting so it can nominate new directors for the board.
Close behind Autodesk was chip company Broadcom, which rose 5.4 per cent to add to gains from last week after it reported better profit than expected and said it would undergo a 10-for-one stock split to make its price more affordable. Broadcom followed Nvidia, the company that’s become the poster child of Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology and just executed a similar split.
Apple gained 2 per cent and Microsoft climbed 1.2 per cent.
Super Micro Computer, which sells server and storage systems used in artificial intelligence and other computing, leaped 5.1 per cent to bring its gain for the year so far to a staggering 212.2 per cent.
The gains for tech helped offset pressure on the stock market caused by rising Treasury yields in the bond market. The climb in yields erased some of the slack created last week when better-than-expected reports on inflation raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.28 per cent from 4.22 per cent late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.76 per cent from 4.71 per cent.
The Fed is trying to hold rates high for long enough to slow the economy and snuff out high inflation, but it wants to cut rates and reverse the momentum before the slowdown evolves into a painful recession.
High interest rates hurt all kinds of investments, and they tend to hit some areas particularly hard. Utilities in the S and P 500 fell 1.1 per cent for Monday’s largest loss among the 11 sectors that make up the index. They often get hurt when bonds are paying more in interest and drawing away income-seeking investors who would otherwise gravitate to dividend-paying utility stocks.
GameStop was another laggard and fell 12.1 per cent following its annual shareholder meeting. The stock has been soaring and sinking as it rides waves of enthusiasm by smaller-pocketed investors. At the meeting, CEO Ryan Cohen said the struggling video game retailer will focus on cutting costs, which would involve a “smaller network of stores”.
In other dealings, US benchmark crude oil lost 17 cents to USD 80.19 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude gave up 30 cents top USD 84.19 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 157.59 Japanese yen from 156.38 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.0724 from USD 1.0702. (AP)
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