Asian shares trade mixed after Wall Street’s rally stalls on U.S. economic data
Hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries have been among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied back so furiously since dropping roughly 20% from its record two months ago. It’s now back within 3.3% of its all-time high.
Trump boosted such hopes Thursday after saying he had “a very good phone call” with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, about trade and that “their respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined.”
It’s an easing of tensions after the world’s two largest economies had earlier accused each other of violating the agreement that had paused their stiff tariffs against each other, which threatened to drag the economy into a recession.
To be sure, nothing is assured amid Trump’s on-and-off rollout of tariffs, and markets took the latest detente with China relatively coolly.
Among Wall Street’s winners was MongoDB, which jumped 12.8% after the database company likewise delivered a stronger profit than analysts expected.
Circle Internet Group, the U.S.-based issuer of one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, surged 168.5% in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Five Below climbed 5.6% after the retailer, which sells products priced between $1 and $5, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Winnie Park credited broad-based strength across most of its merchandise
All told, the S&P 500 fell 31.51 points to 5,939.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 108.00 to 42,319.74, and the Nasdaq composite sank 162.04 to 19,298.45.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held steadier. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.40% from 4.37% late Wednesday after tumbling from 4.46% the day before.
Yields dropped so sharply on Wednesday as expectations built that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates later this year to prop up an economy potentially weakened by tariffs.
In stock markets abroad, indexes in Europe were mixed amid modest moves after the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate again, as was widely expected.
The moves were bigger in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.5% after the country’s new president and leading liberal politician Lee Jae-myung began his term, vowing to restart talks with North Korea and beef up a partnership with the U.S. and Japan.
___
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Content Original Link:
" target="_blank">
