Asian shares experienced a mixed performance on Thursday, with major markets largely trading higher after overnight losses on Wall Street. U.S. futures saw a slight increase, while oil prices witnessed a decline.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index managed to recover from early deficits, recording a gain of 0.3% to reach 45,768.68. The minutes from the Bank of Japan's July meeting released on Thursday revealed that policy officials are leaning towards raising interest rates if there are improvements in economic activity and inflation.
Chinese markets also showed positive trends with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rising by 0.1% to 26,542.37. Similarly, the Shanghai Composite index edged up nearly 0.2% to 3,860.22, buoyed by advancements in technology stocks. South Korea’s Kospi index, however, faced a slight decline of less than 0.1% to 3,471.66, amid concerns about the country’s competitiveness following the reduction of auto tariffs on EU imports by the U.S. to 15%, compared to the 25% tariff on Korean vehicles.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index increased by more than 0.1% to 8,775.00. Conversely, India's BSE Sensex fell by 0.5%, and Taiwan’s Taiex fluctuated before ultimately closing 0.4% lower.
Across the Pacific, U.S. stock indexes experienced a downward drift on Wednesday as concerns lingered over the high valuation of share prices. The S&P 500 index slipped 0.3% to 6,637.97, marking a second consecutive modest loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 171 points, or 0.4%, to 46,121.28, while the Nasdaq composite decreased by 0.3% to 22,497.86. Despite these losses, all three indexes remained close to their all-time highs set earlier in the week.
The U.S. stock market, which has shown significant growth since hitting a low in April, is experiencing a slowdown. This rally has been driven by optimism that President Donald Trump's tariffs would not hinder global trade, along with the anticipation that the Federal Reserve will implement several interest rate cuts to stimulate the U.S. economy. However, the rapid rise in stock prices has led to rising concerns about market valuations becoming too high, particularly if the Fed does not match traders’ expectations for rate cuts.
Reflecting the intense expectations from the market, Micron Technology saw its stock fall by 2.8%, despite reporting better-than-expected profits and revenues for the recent quarter. The computer memory company's stock had already surged 97.7% for the year, indicating the challenges of sustaining such high expectations from investors.
In contrast, shares of Freeport-McMoRan dropped significantly by 17% after the miner adjusted its copper sales forecast, predicting a 4% decrease for the third quarter compared to earlier projections. The company also indicated that gold sales would likely be approximately 6% lower than previously expected.
On a more positive note, Lithium Americas enjoyed a massive surge, climbing 95.8% following reports that the U.S. government is contemplating acquiring an ownership stake in the Canadian company, which is advancing a lithium project in Nevada in partnership with General Motors. Homebuilders saw gains as well, with a report indicating that U.S. new home sales in August were stronger than economists had anticipated and showed unexpected acceleration.
Moving to commodities, early Thursday trading saw benchmark U.S. crude oil losing 26 cents to settle at $64.73 per barrel, while Brent crude, the global standard, experienced a 24-cent decrease to $68.22 per barrel. The U.S. dollar fell to 148.73 Japanese yen from 148.78 yen, whereas the euro increased to $1.1748 from $1.1744.
