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Asian Shares were mostly lower as technology stocks sold off after a weak day on Wednesday wall Street,
US futures rose, while crude oil prices rose by about $1 a barrel.
Chinese markets retreat after US President donald trump Doubts have been expressed whether he will meet the Chinese leader or not. Xi Jinping later this month.
“Maybe it won’t, maybe it won’t,” he said while hosting a lunch for Republican senators at the White House.
However, Trump also said he expected a “good turnout” in negotiations with China.
“I’m going to meet with President Xi in two weeks… We’re going to meet in South Korea,” he said. “We’re going to talk about a lot of things that he wants to discuss.”
Trump is traveling to Japan and South Korea over the next several days to finalize investment terms from those countries as part of a deal to reduce the tariff rates Trump imposes on foreign goods.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1% to 25,769.83, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% to 3,903.01.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 wavered between modest gains and losses a day after Japan’s parliament elected Sanae Takachi as its first female prime minister.
By midday it was up less than 0.1% at 49,332.24, offset by declines in tech companies such as SoftBank Corp, whose shares fell 4.8%.
Japan’s exports rose 4.2% in September from a year earlier, boosted by strong shipments to Asia that offset a 13% decline in U.S. auto shipments, which fell 24% as they were hit hard by Trump’s tariff hikes, the government reported.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9% to 9,012.30, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1% to 3,861.65.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose a fraction of a point, leaving it just shy of its all-time high of 6,735.35 set earlier this month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 46,924.74 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2% to 22,953.67.
General Motors rose 15.1% after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly results, while also raising its forecasts for some full-year financial targets. Warner Bros. Discovery jumped 10.9% after the company said it is now considering options other than the previously announced split of Discovery Global from Warner Bros. that could be more profitable for shareholders.
The market was controlled by declines in some Big Tech stocks, which lost momentum after their own rallies. A 2% decline from its all-time high for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. Broadcom’s 2% decline was similar.
Companies are under pressure to show that their profits are growing after the S&P 500 surged a massive 35% from its April low. This is a way they can justify their high stock prices amid criticism that they are too expensive.
The corporate earnings report may also provide details on the strength of the US economy at a time when key economic updates have been delayed due to the US government shutdown. That’s making the Federal Reserve’s job more difficult as it tries to decide whether higher inflation or a slowing job market is the bigger issue for the economy.
despite the shutdown Department of Commerce It will release its consumer prices report on Friday, which could help guide the Fed’s interest rate policy. This will be the government’s first data release since the shutdown began on October 1.
In other deals early Wednesday, gold was up 1.1% at $4,152.70 an ounce. It fell 5.7% from its latest record on Tuesday but is up more than 56.4% for the year.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 98 cents to $58.22 a barrel. International standard Brent crude jumped $1 to $62.32 per barrel.
The US dollar fell to 151.75 JPY from 151.93 yen. The euro rose from $1.1600 to $1.1610.
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AP Business Writer Stan Cho contributed.