Market Report: Mixed Asian Stocks After Wall Street Rally
Following a rise on Wall Street, the Asian stock market had a mixed day on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve’s chair said that despite the recent positive employment data, they still planned to raise interest rates.
Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo Drops 0.4%
Due to deteriorating electronics and tech-related businesses like Nintendo and Sharp Corp. that announced significant losses in the most recent round of results, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo dropped by 0.4%. In contrast, SoftBank’s net profit fell by 6.5% in the most recent quarter.
Australia, Hong Kong, and China Experience Minor Changes
While Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index experienced a minor gain of 0.3%, the Shanghai Composite index suffered a slight decline of 0.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia increased by 0.3%, and the Kospi in South Korea increased by 1.3%. However, shares fell in Malaysia while increasing in Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Wall Street Witnesses Progress
Wall Street had an upward trend on Tuesday as the benchmark S&P 500 increased by 1.3%. The Nasdaq increased 1.9% to 12,113.79, while the Dow increased 0.8% to 34,156.69. Following similar thoughts expressed last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s latest remarks have taken the market closer to being in line with the Federal Reserve’s thinking.
Concerns about inflation and interest rates
Powell underlined that there is still a long way to go before the Federal Reserve achieves its goal of bringing inflation down to 2%. The Fed intends to make a few more hikes after bringing its benchmark overnight rate to a range of 4.50% to 4.75% before remaining stable at the end of the year. Stock prices have increased steadily from the year’s beginning, notwithstanding recent market fluctuations.
Oil Prices Change Very Little
In computerized trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of barrels of American benchmark crude oil increased by 7 cents to $77.21. The worldwide trade price standard, Brent crude, decreased by 1 cent to $83.68 per barrel.