BEIJING — Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street drifted lower following its latest rally.
The Nikkei 225
NIK,
in Tokyo sank 0.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HSI,
rose 1.6% and the Shanghai Composite Index
SHCOMP,
gained 0.9%.
The Kospi
180721,
in Seoul shed 0.3% while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
added 0.5%. Stocks fell in Taiwan
Y9999,
but gained in Singapore
STI,
while Indonesia
JAKIDX,
was flat.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index
SPX,
lost 0.4% on Monday as tech stocks declined following a rapid run-up while most other stocks advanced. The index is off this year’s high of two weeks ago but still up more than 20% since mid-October.
“The moderation from previous overbought technical conditions and extreme bullish sentiment continues,” Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report.
Stock prices surged this year on hopes that a recession expected after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raised interest rates to cool inflation might come later and be shorter and shallower than previously forecast.
The S&P 500 hit a peak for the year two weeks ago before enthusiasm eased. Last week was the index’s first losing week in the past six.
On Monday, the U.S. market benchmark declined to 4,328.82. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
lost less than 0.1% to 33,714.71.
The Nasdaq composite
COMP,
dominated by tech stocks, fell 1.2% to 13,335.78.
A report on Friday will show how the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation behaved in May, but consumer and wholesale price data already were reported earlier this month
Traders are betting June inflation data due out next month will push the Fed to raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point at its next meeting, which runs July 25-26, according to data from CME Group.
The Fed skipped a rate hike at this month’s meeting after pushing its benchmark lending rate to a 16-year high to cool inflation. Much of Wall Street expects a hike next month to be the final one of this cycle.
The Fed, meanwhile, has suggested it could raise rates twice more because inflation remains stubbornly high even if it has come down from its peak last summer.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude
CLQ23,
rose 32 cents to $69.69 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 21 cents on Monday to $69.37. Brent crude
BRNQ23,
the price standard for international oil trading, added 31 cents to $74.66 per barrel in London. It advanced 33 cents the previous session to $74.18.
The dollar
USDJPY,
declined to 143.40 yen from Monday’s 143.45 yen.
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