Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street decline led by falling tech stocks

AP Business Writer

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Thursday after declines on Wall Street, as the gyrations that recently slammed global markets haunted investors.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 retrieved earlier losses to be down 0.5% in afternoon trading at 34,915.47. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4% to 7,673.10. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.7% to 2,551.36.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8% to 17,018.62. The Shanghai Composite picked up 0.3% to 2,877.28.

Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 1.9% as computer chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. lost 2.5%, tracking losses in the tech sector on Wall Street and elsewhere.

Some semiconductor equipment makers and related companies saw further losses. Advantest Corp. dropped 3.2% and Disco Corp. sank 4%. But Lasertec Corp.’s stock jumped 22.6% after it reported a 28% jump in its net profit for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

The S&P 500 and Dow futures were little changed.

Although Wall Street slumped on Wednesday, the decline wasn’t as bad as the manic moves that wracked worldwide markets earlier in the week. European markets logged strong gains.

Japanese officials moved Wednesday to calm concerns over potential rate hikes after an increase in its key rate contributed to the heavy selling on Monday, when the Nikkei suffered its worst percentage loss since 1987.

The Japanese yen was relatively stable after big gains in its value against the U.S. dollar that led investors to dump shares on Friday and Monday. The U.S. dollar fell to 146.24 Japanese yen from 146.72 yen. The euro cost $1.0935, up from $1.0927.

Investors are also paying close attention to earnings reports being released across the globe.

Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp. both released relatively positive financial results this week. Honda’s shares jumped more than 1%, while Sony lost initial gains to fall 0.7%.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.8% after an earlier jump of 1.7% petered out, closing at 5,199.50. The Dow fell 0.6% to 38,763.45. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1% to 16,195.81.

The yield on the two-year Treasury was holding steady at 3.99% Wednesday, where it was late Tuesday.

Nvidia, one of Wall Street’s most influential companies, went from a morning gain of 4.4% to a loss of 5.1% that made it the index’s heaviest weight. Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks have been struggling on worries their prices have shot too high amid Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.

Helping to limit the losses on Wall Street was Apple, which rose 1.2%. It clawed back some of its losses from earlier in the week after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed it had slashed its ownership stake in the iPhone maker.

Strong earnings are supporting the markets even as concerns deepen over the trajectory for the U.S. economy following relatively weak jobs data.

Strong earnings reports from the biggest U.S. companies continue to roll in, and the growth for those in the S&P 500 index may end up being the best since 2021, according to FactSet.

The expectation on Wall Street is for the Fed to cut its main interest rate at its next scheduled meeting next month by either the traditional quarter of a percentage point or a more severe half of a point.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 17 cents to $75.40 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 6 cents to $78.39 a barrel.