Asian stocks trade mixed on Wall Street after big tech rally
TOKYO (AP) — Asian stocks traded mixed on Tuesday following a Big Tech rally on Wall Street, as investors awaited an update on U.S. consumer prices expected later in the week.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.0% to 32,776.37. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 7,206.90. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8% to 2,536.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2% to 18,056.17, while the Shanghai Composite fell almost 0.2% to 3,137.73.
The Federal Reserve is considering whether to continually raise interest rates to bring inflation back down to 2%. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will release the latest monthly update on the prices consumers pay across the economy. The forecast says they were 3.6% higher in August than a year earlier.
“Upcoming U.S. data will be crucial ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision next week,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.
The Fed has already raised its key interest rate to its highest level in more than two decades and said it will base its next steps on how inflation and other parts of the economy perform. Inflation has fallen from last year’s peak of over 9%, but economists warn that the latest improvement to meet the Fed’s target could be the hardest to achieve.
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A separate report on Thursday will also show how much U.S. households spent at retailers last month. Heavy spending there has helped the economy avoid a long-predicted recession. But it could also encourage companies to continue trying to raise prices, which would drive up inflation.
Most traders expect the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates where they are at its meeting next week, according to data from CME Group. But many are preparing for another possible rate hike by the end of this year while tempering expectations of rate cuts next year.
On Monday, Wall Street’s S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 4,487.46, having its first losing week in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 34,663.72 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.1% to 13,917.89.
Some big tech-focused stocks led the way. Tesla rose 10.1%, Amazon rose 3.5% and Meta Platforms rose 3.2%. Charter Communications rose 3.2% following its announcement a deal with The Walt Disney Co. to restore access to ESPN and other channels for its Spectrum Video customers. Disney rose 1.2%.
Apple rose 0.7% ahead of an event on Tuesday expected to release its latest iPhone model. Apple’s performance has a major impact on the market as it is the most valuable stock on Wall Street. That means its moves carry more weight on the S&P 500 and other indices than any other stock.
Qualcomm rose 3.9% after the company announced a deal to supply 5G devices for Apple in its phone launches in 2024 to 2026.
Aerospace company RTX slumped 7.9% after it said a previously announced problem with its Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines could cause a $3 billion to $3.5 billion drop in pretax operating profit over the next few years mean. It was said that up to 700 engines would be removed for workshop visits over the next few years.
Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Trading in the United States fell 1.5% after it announced that former CEO Daniel Zhang would step down as head of its cloud computing division.
The company has restructured following setbacks from regulatory crackdowns on the technology and financial sectors.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 32 cents to $87.61 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 24 cents to $90.88 a barrel.
In foreign exchange trading, the US dollar rose to 146.93 Japanese yen from 146.55 yen. The euro was at $1.0737, down from $1.0756.
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