April 7 (Reuters) – Asian stocks will be slow to open Wednesday after Wall Street pulled back from record highs reached in previous sessions, as investors look to the upcoming earnings season for more signs of recovery following a string of strong US economic data.
The three major Wall Street indices closed lower on Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 and Dow rose to record levels, driven by optimism from a larger-than-expected job report last Friday and data showing a dramatic recovery in the U.S. services sector on Monday .
Investors also weighed in on the latest US job posting report, which showed Tuesday that job openings rose to its highest point in two years in February, while hires made their biggest gains in nine months amid increased COVID-19 vaccinations and additional government incentives.
“We’ve had a few big days in a row and I think the markets want to take a little break here,” said Charlie Ripley, vice president of portfolio management at Allianz Investment Management in Minnesota. “From an economic data point of view, we haven’t gotten too much information, other than the job opening report and market prices reflect that.”
The Japanese Nikkei 225 futures are down 0.1%, while the Australian S & P / ASX 200 futures are up 0.04%.
The International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast from 5.5% this year from 5.5% to 6%, reflecting the rapidly improving outlook for the US economy.
With earnings season ahead expected to see S&P earnings growth of 24.2% from a year earlier, according to data from Refinitiv, investors will look to see if corporate results further confirm recent positive economic data.
“We’re entering earnings season and we’ll get a better picture of how companies performed in the first quarter, even as we come out of the pandemic,” said Ripley.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29% to 33,430.24, the S&P 500 dropped 0.10% to 4,073.94, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.05% to 13,698.38.
US Treasury yields fell, with 5-year bonds leading the decline, on investors’ view that market prices were too aggressive based on an earlier than expected Fed tightening.
Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 18/32 to return 1.6578%, up from 1.72% late Monday.
The dollar fell to a two-week low against a basket of global currencies, with traders taking advantage of March’s strong performance as falling government bond yields weighed on the greenback.
The dollar index fell 0.259%, while the euro fell 0.05% to $ 1.1869. The Korean won 0.08% stronger than the dollar at 1,118.21 per dollar.
Crude oil prices partially recovered from the previous session’s losses, bolstered by strong data from the United States and China.
US crude oil gained 1.16% to $ 59.33 a barrel, and Brent came in at $ 62.74 a barrel, up 0.95% on the same day.
Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Edited by Christopher Cushing