BANGKOK (AP) — Stocks fell mostly Wednesday in Asia after Wall Street benchmarks fell after the S&P 500 rose to its highest level since last spring.
US futures were little changed and oil prices rose.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.1% to 33,427.14, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 1.5% to 19,607.08. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5% to 3,240.36 and the Seoul Kospi fell 0.4% to 2,594.19.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 7,345.30.
This week has few events that can move the market.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will testify before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday. Last week, the Fed held its benchmark interest rate steady, the first time in more than a year that it hasn’t announced an increase. But he also warned that he could raise rates two more times this year.
The Bank of England will meet on interest rate policy on Thursday. Central banks around the world are moving in divergent directions as they battle inflation amid concerns about a stressed global economy.
“Investors are turning cautious ahead of another strong dose of Fedspeak amid a relatively light data file,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a comment.
He added that “with central banks willing to spread the pain of inflation these days, investors may need to see a positive convergence of inflation data to narrow the large gap between the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve’s forward inflation expectations. market before breaking new higher ground in the US stocks.”
On Tuesday, as US markets reopened after being closed for the June 16 holiday, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 4,388.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 34,053.87, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.2% to 13,667.29.
The US stock market took a step back after many steps forward in the hope that the economy can avoid a recession and inflation is easing enough for the Fed to stop raising interest rates soon. TO frenzy around artificial intelligence it has also led a select group of tech stocks to big gains.
Those hopes battle concerns that the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer, which could weaken the economy. Some of the easier improvements in year-on-year inflation will soon wear off, bringing more difficult times for both the economy and financial markets.
During the 1970s, inflation stayed high for much longer than expected, forcing the Federal Reserve to finally push the economy into a painful recession.
In China, meanwhile, the world’s second-largest economy stumbles in its recovery after the easing of anti-COVID restrictions.
Most of Wall Street fell, with four out of five stocks in the S&P 500 down.
Concerns about the global economy dragged down prices for crude oil and shares of companies that pump it out of the ground. Energy stocks fell 2.3% for the biggest loss among the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500. Exxon Mobil fell 2.3% and Chevron lost 2.3%.
Ball Corp., which makes aluminum cans and other products, fell 4.2%. He said on Tuesday that he is considering options for his aerospace business, but “there is no certainty that a formal decision will be made.” Its shares had risen 7.2% on Friday following a report that it was looking to sell the unit.
On the winning side was Dice Therapeutics, which soared 37.2% after Eli Lilly said it would buy the biopharmaceutical company for $2.4 billion in cash. Lilly added 0.9%.
Homebuilders rose after a report showed that US homebuilders broke ground on far more sites last month than economists had expected. The number of building permits, an indication of future activity, also accelerated faster than expected.
PulteGroup rose 1.9% and DR Horton gained 1.6%.
In other trading on Wednesday, benchmark US crude oil rose 29 cents to $71.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 18 cents to $75.17 a barrel.
The dollar rose to 141.70 Japanese yen from 141.34 yen. The euro fell to $1.0916 from $1.0922.
___
AP business writer Stan Choe contributed.