TOKYO – Asian stocks fell on Thursday mainly due to caution in corporate earnings reports, recent choppy technology stock trading and prospects for more economic stimulus for a world battling a pandemic.
Nikkei 225 NIK from Japan,
fell 0.5% during early trade, while South Korean Kospi 180721,
decreased 1.6%. Australian S & P / ASX 200 XJO,
slipped 0.6%. Hang Seng HSI in Hong Kong,
1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP,
was down 1%. Shares rose in Indonesia JAKIDX,
and Malaysia FBMKLCI,
but fell in Singapore STI,
and Taiwan Y9999,
What also concerns market players is the global roll-out of vaccines, which is more organized in the US but has yet to take place in much of Asia, except China, where the pandemic started.
“As the rally for the US market eased, Asian markets may be left to their own devices during the Thursday session, and it looks like investors can capture some of the recent gains,” said Jingyi Pan, a senior market strategist for IG in Singapore. .
Wall Street ended with modest gains, with the S&P 500 SPX,
rose 3.86 points, or 0.1%, to 3,830.17, after moving between a gain of 0.6% and a loss of 0.3%. The small gain extended the benchmark index’s winning streak to a third day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
achieved 36.12 points, or 0.1%, to 30,723.60. The technically demanding Nasdaq COMP,
dropped 2.23 points, or less than 0.1%, to 13,610.54. The index was just above its all-time high last week.
Energy, communications and financial stocks boosted the market. Those profits were mainly held in check by declines in companies dependent on consumer spending and technology stocks.
GameStop and other recent high-flying stocks posted modest gains on Wednesday. GameStop GME,
increased 2.7% and AMC AMC,
climbed 14.7%. The stock has been engaged in a speculative frenzy by traders on online forums seeking to harm Wall Street hedge funds betting the stock would fall. GameStop was down 60% on Tuesday and AMC Entertainment was down 41.2%.
“There is now a tug of war that markets are ripe for correction and whether last week’s events are a sudden event,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
Shares are largely on the rise this week, an encouraging start to February after a late fade in January, as volatility spiked amid concerns about the timing and magnitude of another round of stimulus spending by the Biden administration, uneasiness over effectiveness of the government’s distribution of the coronavirus vaccine and turbulent swings in GameStop and other stocks hyped on social media.
That volatility has eased this week, with Wall Street focusing primarily on corporate earnings reports while watching Washington for signs of progress with a new aid package.
Democrats and Republicans remain widely separated in support for President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package, but investors are betting that the government will opt for a reconciliation process to get the legislation through Congress.
In energy trading, US crude oil benchmark CLH21,
won 15 cents to 55.84% per barrel. Brent raw BRNJ21,
the international standard added 6 cents to $ 58.52 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar USDJPY,
fell from 105.06 yen to 105.02 Japanese yen.