Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday after a late decline sent Wall Street’s main indexes mostly lower.
Tokyo was closed on Tuesday for a public holiday. Hong Kong and Seoul fell while Shanghai edged higher.
Market players appear to be relieved to hear that US President Joe Biden will nominate Jerome Powell for a second 4-year term to lead the Federal Reserve, a vote of confidence. for Powell’s handling of central bank policies during the brutal disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% to 24,669.59 and Seoul’s Kospi lost 0.5% to 2,997.33. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8% to 7,410.60 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.2% to 3,588.77.
Shares rose in India but fell in Taiwan.
Oanda’s Jeffrey Halley said: “With Japan on holiday today, the price action in the US markets is being replicated across the board in Asia. Comments.
Investors are keeping a close eye on the Fed to see if pressure from rising inflation prompts the Fed to accelerate plans to cut bond purchases and raise the benchmark interest rate.
“The fact that Powell received the nod is a sign that Biden is on the right track in monetary policy and that the Fed is slowly moving toward policy normalization,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. “. “Overall, the Fed will continue to be the driving force for currency stability.”
However, the explosive selling late in the afternoon derailed the market from another all-time high on Monday.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 4,682.94. The Dow rose less than 0.1% to 35,619.25. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.3% to 15,854.76.
Shares of small companies also fell. The Russell 2000 index fell 0.5% to 2,331.35.
Bond yields go higher when sold heavily. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.63% from 1.54% late Friday.
Higher Treasury yields make more expensive areas of the market, like tech stocks, less attractive, which could explain why more stock selling late in the day when the market is low. convertible bonds.
With inflation rising as a result of the recovery from the pandemic, the Federal Reserve is beginning to cut back on bond purchases that have helped keep interest rates low to support the economy and markets.
More than 55% of stocks in the S&P 500 rose Monday, but the losses for technology and media companies outweighed gains elsewhere in the benchmark index. Chipmaker Nvidia fell 3.1% and Netflix fell 2.9%.
Energy companies struggled as U.S. crude oil prices rose 0.9 percent.
On Tuesday, the price of U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 83 cents to $75.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, rose 61 cents to $79.09 a barrel.
The US dollar rose to 115.08 Japanese yen from 114.88 yen late Monday. The euro rose to $1.1239 from $1.1237.
Markets in the US will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will also close early on Friday.
