Asia-Pacific Markets Trade Mixed Despite Wall Street Gains
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed, even as all three major benchmarks on Wall Street rose overnight on optimism that a global economic slowdown will not hamper progress in artificial intelligence.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.12% at the open.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.99% while the broader Topix index gained 0.62% in early trade.
In South Korea, the Kospi index fell 0.54% while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat.
Futures tied to Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index were at 21,935, indicating a weaker open compared with the HSI’s last close of 22,119.41 on Wednesday. Chinese markets are closed for the Labor Day public holiday.
U.S. stock futures fell as Wall Street digested earnings reports from two of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks — Apple and Amazon.
In extended trading, Apple shares fell more than 4% after revenue from its Services division missed Wall Street estimates in the fiscal second quarter. Meanwhile, Amazon shares fell more than 2% as the e-commerce giant reported better-than-expected first-quarter results but issued weak guidance for the current period as it grapples with uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Overnight domestically, stocks rose as strong quarterly results from Meta Platforms and Microsoft — two Big Tech stocks and the “Magnificent Seven” — eased concerns about a slowdown in artificial intelligence-powered development amid current macroeconomic uncertainty.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.60 points, or 0.21%, to close at 40,752.96. The S&P 500 gained 0.63% to close at 5,604.14, still slightly below where it was before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in early April. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.52%, closing at 17,710.74 and erasing its decline since April 2.
Source: CNBC
