BANGKOK – Asian stocks fell on Wednesday as markets digested Japanese and Australian business data, after U.S. stocks held relatively steady as earnings reporting season ramped up for big companies.
U.S. futures fell while oil prices were higher.
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Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.1% to 39,154.85, with the Japanese yen trading at its highest level in months ahead of a Bank of Japan policy decision next week.
The U.S. dollar was trading over 162 yen earlier this month but the Japanese currency has strengthened in recent days after officials intervened to staunch the yen's decline. Expectations that the BOJ may raise its near-zero interest rate, and that the Federal Reserve may in turn cut rates, have helped support the yen, which has languished as the gap between U.S. rates and those in Japan widened.
On Wednesday, the dollar was trading at 154.68 yen, down from 155.59 yen late Tuesday.
A business survey released on Wednesday showed Japan's factory activity contracted in July, as weak demand weighed on the manufacturing sector. Services were on the rise, helping to drive growth in overall activity in Japan’s private sector.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.1% to 17,320.49, led by the Hang Seng Tech Index which sank 1.6%. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.5% to 2,901.95.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 7,963.70 after its services sector saw weaker growth in July. Manufacturing improved slightly but remained in contractionary territory.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.6% to 2,758.71, as heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 2.2% after talks between the company and its largest workers’ union ended with no agreement. Earlier this month, the workers declared an indefinite strike to pressure the company to accept their calls for higher pay and other benefits.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 5,555.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower to 40,358.09, and the Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1% to 17,997.35.
But the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 continued their big run and rose 1%. They’ve flipped the market’s leaderboard recently and zoomed higher amid hopes for coming cuts to interest rates.
The mixed trading came as dozens of companies reported their results for the spring, with the headliners of Alphabet and Tesla coming after trading closed for the day. Expectations are high, and analysts are forecasting the strongest profit growth for S&P 500 companies broadly since late 2021, according to FactSet.
UPS was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 and tumbled 12.1% after delivering weaker profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected.
But CEO Carol Tomé said the company’s U.S. business delivered more packages than a year earlier, its first such growth in nine quarters, and called it a “significant turning point for our company.”
Nvidia was the stock most forcefully pushing downward on the S&P 500. Its loss of 0.8% for the day was relatively modest, but the S&P 500 gives more weight to bigger stocks, and Nvidia is worth more than $3 trillion.
That’s despite high mortgage rates having chilled the housing industry. A report on Tuesday showed sales of previously occupied homes weakened by even more in June than economists expected. Sales slowed in part because prices for previously occupied homes are at the highest level ever recorded, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Easier times may be ahead for rates. With inflation slowing, the wide expectation is for the Federal Reserve to begin lowering its main interest rate in September. That would offer some relief for both the economy and financial markets after the Fed has held the federal funds rate at the highest level in more than two decades.
In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 40 cents to $77.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 39 cents to $81.40 per barrel.
The euro fell to $1.0848 from $1.0855.