Hong Kong, April 26 (BNA): Asian stocks rose significantly on Tuesday after US stocks retraced sharp losses to post solid gains.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul advanced while Sydney retreated.
Shanghai slumped again on renewed concerns about pandemic lockdowns that could further derail the world’s second-largest economy and hamper global economic growth, the AP reports.
The Shanghai Composite fell 0.9% to 2,902.46, giving up early gains. On Monday, it fell 5.1%.
The Chinese capital, Beijing, has begun mass testing more than 3 million people and confining residents in one part of the city to their compounds, raising fears of a wider, Shanghai-like lockdown. This city has been closed for more than two weeks, and this has already prompted the International Monetary Fund to scale back the growth forecast for the Chinese economy.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which lost 3.7% on Monday, traded 0.7% higher at 20,000.69.
Seoul’s Kospi Index rose 0.5% to 2,669.41 after the government reported that the South Korean economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.1% in the first quarter of the year, up 0.7% from the previous quarter.
The economy is recovering from the woes of the pandemic as the government lifts COVID restrictions since case numbers plummeted after a wave of variable omicron.
“This would lead to a revival of oppressed parts of the service sector. Any further reduction in prudential savings should provide an additional boost to consumption,” Alex Holmes of Capital Economics said in a commentary. “With private consumption continuing below pre-pandemic levels,” he said. There is plenty of room for recovery.”
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 26700.11 and India’s Sensex rose 1.2% to 57254.49.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.9% to 7,331.30.
we. The price of benchmark oil rose 92 cents to $99.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $3.53 to $98.54 on Monday.
Brent crude, the international oil pricing benchmark, rose 1.23 cents to $103.39 a barrel.
The dollar fell to 127.89 yen from 128.14 yen late Monday. The euro rose to $1.0727 from $1.0713.
On Monday, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.6% to 4,296.12 after erasing an early loss of 1.7%. The rally was led by shares of Internet-related companies, including Twitter, which jumped 5.7% after agreeing to allow Tesla CEO and extraordinary tweeter Elon Musk to buy it.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 34,049.46, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3% to 13,004.85.
The S&P 500 is emerging from a three-week losing streak, fraught with concerns about the Federal Reserve’s plans to move faster in raising interest rates to curb high inflation.
Gains for several technology-related stocks were the strongest forces that lifted the S&P 500 index on Monday, including a 2.4% gain for Microsoft and a 2.9% increase for Class A shares in Google parent Alphabet.
Both are due to report their latest quarterly results on Tuesday.
Wall Street is in the middle of one of the most important periods of earnings season. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and parent company Google are all ready to report this week. Since they are among the largest companies by market capitalization, their moves have the most impact on the S&P 500.
Fears are also growing that the US economy may slow sharply or even fall into recession due to the large interest rate increases expected to be paid by the Federal Reserve.
Besides their bottom line earnings numbers, investors are also looking to better understand how major companies in the technology, industrial and retail sectors are dealing with rising inflation and supply chain issues.
Inflation remains a major concern for investors. Investors are concerned about whether the Fed will be able to raise interest rates enough to suppress inflation but not so much as to cause a recession.
The Fed chair indicated that the central bank may raise short-term interest rates by twice the usual amount in upcoming meetings, starting next week. The Fed has already raised its key rate overnight once, the first such increase since 2018.
Wall Street will also get some key economic data this week. The Conference Board will release its April consumer confidence gauge on Tuesday. The Commerce Department will release its report on first-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday.