BANGKOK: Stocks were mixed on Friday in Asia after Wall Street tapped fresh records, led by big gains in chipmakers.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 topped 41,000 for the first time early Friday but then fell back, closing up 0.2 percent lower at 40,888.43.
Chinese property and tech companies weighed on markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2 percent to 16,527.85 and the Shanghai Composite sank 1 percent to 3,048.03.
In Australia, the S and P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 7,770.60. India’s Sensex rose 0.3 percent to 72,855.32.
Bangkok’s SET edged 0.1 percent lower and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.2 percent.
On Thursday, the S and P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 5,241.53, setting an all-time high for a third straight day. Three out of every four stocks in the index gained ground.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 percent to 39,781.37, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 percent to 16,401.84. Both indexes added to records set a day earlier.
Treasury yields were mostly steady a day after the Federa
l Reserve said it still expects to make three rate cuts this year. That helped calm some worries on Wall Street that it would pull some cuts off the table following some hotter-than-expected inflation reports.
Lower interest rates would relax pressure on the economy and the financial system. Wall Street expects the Fed to start cutting rates at its meeting in June.
Some reports on Thursday morning suggested the U.S. economy is doing better than expected, even in the fact of high rates. Fewer U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, another signal of a remarkably resilient job market.
A measure of manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly grew, while a preliminary look at manufacturing nationwide was also better than expected.
Wall Street will get its next big inflation update next week when the U.S. reports personal consumption and expenditures data for February. It is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. Overall, inflation has eased by several measures since spiki
ng in the middle of 2022, though progress stalled in the first two months of this year.
The Swiss National Bank said it was trimming its key interest rate, a surprise move that makes Switzerland the first major financial center to announce a cut in recent months. The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at a 16-year high and avoided signalling when it might start to cut even though inflation has dropped sharply.
In other trading early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 53 cents to US$80.54 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 54 cents to US$84.70 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 151.39 Japanese yen from 151.65 yen. The euro fell to US$1.0822 from US$1.0861.
Source: Emirates News Agency