Current:Home > Contact-usStock market today: Asian markets are mixed, Shanghai falls as Fitch lowers China’s rating outlook-LoTradeCoin
Stock market today: Asian markets are mixed, Shanghai falls as Fitch lowers China’s rating outlook
View Date:2024-12-23 20:50:32
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed Wednesday in Asia after U.S. stock indexes held at a near standstill ahead of some potentially market-moving reports.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.7% to 17,115.94, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.8% to 3,026.11 after Fitch Ratings lowered its outlook for China’s public finances.
The report by Fitch cited increased risks due to China’s shift away from reliance on its troubled property sector and rising public debt.
“There is little clarity on reform measures to support medium-term fiscal consolidation,” it said.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.5% to 39,581.81 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gained 0.3%, to 7,848.50.
India’s Sensex advanced 0.3% and the SET in Bangkok climbed 0.5%.
Markets in South Korea were closed for an election.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 5,209.91 after barely budging the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1%, to 38,883.67, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to 16,306.64.
Later Wednesday the U.S. will release its highly anticipated update on inflation at the consumer level. This week will also bring other reports on inflation, and big U.S. companies will begin reporting how much profit they made during the first three months of the year.
The dominant question hanging over Wall Street is whether inflation will cool enough to convince the Federal Reserve to deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders are craving and have been betting on.
“There’s a palpable sense of nervousness among investors as they exercise a modicum of restraint, concerned about the possibility of hotter-than-expected inflation figures,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Some doubts have crept in following a series of hotter -than- expectedreports on the economy, and traders now expect just two or three cuts to rates this year. Some are even talking about the possibility of zero. That’s down from forecasts at the start of the year for six or seven cuts, according to data from CME Group.
The Fed’s main interest rate is at its highest level in more than two decades and the risk is that rates left too high for too long might cause a recession.
While a jump in oil prices this year has raised worries about a feedthrough into inflation, oil would likely need to rise “well above levels seen even in the peak Russia-Ukraine commodity price spike for a meaningful impact on core inflation,” the Bank of America strategists said in a BofA Global Research report.
U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 21 cents early Wednesday to $85.44 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, it fell $1.20 to settle at $85.23, trimming its gain for the year so far to below 20%.
Brent crude, the international standard, was up 22 cents to $89.64 per barrel, after falling 96 cents on Wednesday to $89.42 per barrel.
On Wall Street, Apple helped nudge the S&P 500 higher by rising 0.7%. It trimmed it loss for the year to a shade below 12%.
Norfolk Southern rose 1.3% even though the railroad reported preliminary earnings results for the first quarter that were shy of analysts’ expectations.
It agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment last year in eastern Ohio. The company said the agreement, if approved by the court, will resolve all class action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius for those choosing to participate.
Some of Wall Street’s largest losses came from the same stocks that have been the biggest winners in the market’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.
Nvidia sank 2%, and because it’s one of the biggest stocks in the market, it was the single heaviest force weighing on the S&P 500. Super Micro Computer fell 2.6%, though its stock has still more than tripled so far this year.
Tilray Brands tumbled 20.7% after the cannabis company reported weaker revenue growth for its latest quarter than analysts expected.
In currency dealings, the U.S. dollar rose to 151.79 Japanese yen from 151.75 yen. The euro fell to $1.0855 from $1.0857.
veryGood! (86292)
Related
- Bohannan requests a recount in Iowa’s close congressional race as GOP wins control of House
- 2nd grand jury indicts officer for involuntary manslaughter in Virginia mall shooting
- Luminescent photo of horseshoe crab wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize
- Schools near a Maui wildfire burn zone are reopening. Parents wrestle with whether to send kids back
- Sister Wives’ Christine Brown Shares Glimpse Into Honeymoon One Year After Marrying David Woolley
- Wisconsin Assembly passes transgender sports restrictions, gender-affirming care ban
- Criminal mastermind or hapless dude? A look into Sam Bankman-Fried's trial so far
- Coast Guard rescues 2 after yacht sinks off South Carolina
- Ryan Reynolds Makes Dream Come True for 9-Year-Old Fan Battling Cancer
- While the world is watching Gaza, violence fuels growing tensions in the occupied West Bank
Ranking
- Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says next year will be his last in office; mum on his plans afterward
- Louise Glück, Nobel-winning poet of terse and candid lyricism, dies at 80
- Chris Evans Breaks Silence on Marriage to Alba Baptista
- Did a woman kill her stepdad after finding explicit photos of herself on his computer?
- College Football Playoff snubs: Georgia among teams with beef after second rankings
- Minnesota man who shot officers told wife it was ‘his day to die,’ according to complaint
- Louisiana considers creating hunting season for once-endangered black bears
- 'Wait Wait' for October 14, 2023: 25th Anniversary Spectacular, Part VII!
Recommendation
-
Ariana Grande's Brunette Hair Transformation Is a Callback to Her Roots
-
Amid fury of Israel-Hamas war, U.S. plans Israel evacuation flights for Americans starting Friday
-
'Feels like a hoax': Purported Bigfoot video from Colorado attracts skeptics, believers
-
Proof Hugh Jackman and Estranged Wife Deborra-Lee Furness Are on Good Terms
-
Jenn Tran's Ex Devin Strader Throws Shade At Her DWTS Partner Sasha Farber Amid Romance Rumors
-
EU can’t reach decision on prolonging the use of chemical herbicide glyphosate
-
California Gov. Newsom signs law to slowly raise health care workers’ minimum wage to $25 per hour
-
Palestinians flee south after Israel calls for evacuation of northern Gaza