Jimo Zhong, Associated Press
8 minutes ago
FILE – The facade of the New York Stock Exchange is shown on Thursday, April 11, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stock benchmarks were mostly higher Tuesday as U.S. stocks regained some of their losses from the previous week.
U.S. futures were mixed, and oil prices rose.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.3% to 37,552.16 yen, despite the country’s manufacturing activity contracting for 11 consecutive months and approaching breakeven in April. became.
According to a survey of purchasing managers, sentiment was 49.9, indicating that a score of 50 on a 100-point scale is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The yen fell further, hitting a 34-year low of 154.85 yen early Tuesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.6% to 16,771.17, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.8% to 3,019.64.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.4% to 7,683.50. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 2,624.73.
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 5,010.60, recovering more than a quarter of last week’s losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to $38,239.98, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1% to $15,451.31.
The rally was broad-based, with most stocks across Wall Street rising. In the S&P 500, technology stocks led the recovery from the worst week since the 2020 coronavirus crash.
In the bond market, Nvidia jumped 4.4% and Alphabet rose 1.4% as U.S. Treasury yields stabilized. A sharp rise in yields last week put pressure on stocks seen as the most expensive, making investors wait the longest for big growth.
Bank stocks also performed well following some encouraging profit reports. Trust Financial rose 3.4% after its year-to-date profit beat analysts’ expectations.
That helped offset a 3.4% decline in Tesla Inc., which announced further price cuts over the weekend. Elon Musk’s electric car company, whose stock has already fallen more than 40% this year, is scheduled to report first-quarter results later that day.
It’s typically a big week for earnings reports, with about 30% of S&P 500 companies scheduled to report earnings for the first three months of the year. That includes companies that have surpassed Tesla and Alphabet and become known as members of the Magnificent Seven.
The gap between the growth rates of the Magnificent Seven and the rest of the S&P 500 index should narrow by the end of the year, strategists Oson Kwon and Savita Subramanian said in a report from BofA Global Research.
Verizon Communications opened this week’s report by disclosing a decline in profits that was not as severe as analysts expected. It cited price increases and other measures to support profits. Verizon stock fell 4.7% after an early rise after the company announced lower-than-expected first-quarter sales and left its full-year profit forecast unchanged.
Companies as a whole are under even more pressure than usual to achieve greater profits and revenues. This is because interest rates, another major factor determining stock prices, are unlikely to be of much use in the short term.
Federal Reserve officials warned last week that it may be necessary to keep interest rates high for some time to ensure inflation falls to its 2% target. This was a huge disappointment for financial markets, ruining hopes that had been building since the Fed earlier indicated there could be three rate cuts this year.
After inflation cooled sharply last year, interest rate cuts appeared to be on the horizon. But a series of reports showing that inflation has remained higher than expected this year have raised concerns that progress could stall.
In oil trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 16 cents to $82.06 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard crude, rose 18 cents to $87.18 a barrel.
The dollar fell from 154.84 yen to 154.78 yen. The euro fell from $1.0653 to $1.0646.
