US shares were relatively stable as the earnings season for major companies gets into full swing, but Asian shares were mostly lower on Wednesday as markets digested corporate data from Japan and Australia.
U.S. futures fell, but oil prices rose.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average was down 0.2 percent to 39,508.84 in morning trading, while the Japanese yen was trading at a multi-month high ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy decision next week.
Earlier this month, the U.S. dollar was trading above 162 yen, but the yen has strengthened in recent days as authorities stepped in to halt a weakening of the yen. Expectations that the Bank of Japan might raise its near-zero interest rates and that the Federal Reserve might cut them have helped support the yen, which has been struggling amid a widening interest rate gap between U.S. and Japanese currencies.
Early Wednesday, the dollar was trading at 154.78 yen, down from Tuesday’s close of 155.59 yen.
Weak demand from manufacturers weighed on Japan’s manufacturing sector, causing factory activity to contract in July, according to a business survey released on Wednesday, while services grew, driving growth in overall private sector activity in Japan.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 0.6% to 17,370.09, dragged down by a 0.9% drop in the Hang Seng Technology Index, while the Shanghai Composite Index was little changed at 2,915.46.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 7,973.20 as growth in the services sector slowed in July, while manufacturing improved slightly but is still in contraction.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.3% to 2,772.55. Samsung Electronics Co. plunged 1.1% after talks between the company and its largest labor union ended without an agreement. Earlier this month, workers declared their labor contracts indefinite. strike To pressure the company to accept their demands for higher wages and other benefits.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 5,555.74, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1% to 40,358.09 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.1% to 17,997.35.
But small-cap stocks in the Russell 2000 index continued to rally strongly, climbing 1%, after upsetting the market leaderboard in recent days and surging on hopes of upcoming interest rate cuts.
Mixed transactions include dozens of Enterprise reported Spring ResultsLeading stocks Alphabet and Tesla were released after the close. Expectations are high, with analysts forecasting profit growth for S&P 500 companies to be the strongest since the second half of 2021, according to FactSet.
UPS, one of the heaviest components of the S&P 500, fell 12.1% after its spring profit and sales figures fell short of analysts’ expectations.
But CEO Carol Tomé said the company’s U.S. operations delivered more packages than they did last year. First growth The company said the results marked its first improvement in performance in nine quarters, marking a “major turning point for the company.”
NVIDIA It was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 index. Its decline on the day was relatively small, at 0.8%, but the S&P 500 index is weighted toward large-cap stocks, and Nvidia is worth more than $3 trillion.
That’s despite rising mortgage rates dampening the housing industry, according to a report released on Tuesday. Used home sales are sluggish Home sales rose more than economists had expected in June, partly because existing-home prices are at record highs, according to the National Association of Realtors.
As for interest rates, a period of easing may be on the way. With inflation slowing, there is widespread expectation that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting its key interest rate in September. A cut would provide some relief to both the economy and financial markets, given that the Fed has been holding the federal funds rate at its highest level in more than two decades.
Meanwhile, benchmark U.S. crude rose 31 cents to $77.27 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 34 cents to $81.35 a barrel.
The euro fell to $1.0845 from $1.0855.
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AP Business Writer Stan Cho contributed.
