Stock market today: Asian shares trade mixed after drops for Big Tech leave Wall Street mixed
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Asian shares traded mixed Tuesday, echoing Wall Street trading, where gains for oil-and-gas producers helped offset drops for Nvidia and other Big Tech companies. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.8% in morning trading to 38,469.58, reopening after a holiday on Monday. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4% to 8,220.50. South Korea's Kospi was little changed, inching down less than 0.1% to 2,489.33. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.5% to 19,163.92, while the Shanghai Composite surged 2.2% to 3,229.99.
“After a holiday break, Japan’s markets are playing catch-up following last week’s market sell-off,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG. Japan’s Finance Ministry reported that the current account, a measure of Japan’s foreign exchanges in goods, services and investments, rose to 3.4 trillion yen ($21 billion) in November, up 54.5% from the same month the previous year.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% after erasing an earlier fall of 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 358 points, or 0.9%, while the weakness for Big Tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite to a loss of 0.4%. Stocks have been under pressure the last month, and the S&P 500 is coming off its fourth losing week in the last five as traders cull expectations for how much relief the Federal Reserve may deliver this year through lower interest rates.
Such cuts would give the economy a boost, and the U.S. stock market ran to repeated records last year on the assumption that more are coming after the Fed began lowering rates in September. But inflation has remained above the Fed’s 2% target, and recent reports have suggested a still-solid U.S. economy doesn’t need much help. Questions are growing about whether the Fed will deliver even a single cut in 2025.
