TOKYO, JAPAN — Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday, following Wall Street’s shaky day of trading. China’s GDP grew at a 7.9% annual rate in the third quarter, down from 18.3% in the first three months of the year. However, this indicated a plateau in the country’s remarkably quick recovery from the pandemic.
The Nikkei 225 NIK, -1.00 percent, Japan’s benchmark index, fell 0.9 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -0.28 percent of Australia’s stock market fell 0.1 percent, while the Kospi 180721, +0.53 percent of South Korea’s stock market rose 0.5 percent. The Hang Seng HSI, +1.22 percent in Hong Kong gained 1.3 percent, while the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +0.23 percent inched up 0.4 percent in Shanghai. Singapore’s stock index, the STI, fell by 0.39 percent, but Taiwan’s stock index, the Y9999, gained by 0.82 percent, and Indonesia’s stock index, the JAKIDX, increased by 0.82 percent.
According to Harpreet Bhal of ActivTrades, the reaction to China’s newest statistics was modest. “As worries about H2 growth emerge after a probable pick-up in global activity in the first half of this year, investors will be watching the dynamics of the narrative around China’s monetary and fiscal easing,” Bhal wrote in a commentary. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.12 percent gained 0.1 percent to 4,374.30 on Wall Street, after recovering from an early slip and then losing much of its momentum by late afternoon, as a rally in technology stocks was tempered by a slide in banks and energy companies. The benchmark index recouped some of its previous day’s losses, but fell short of its all-time high achieved on Monday. Despite increases by some prominent tech companies, including Apple, the Nasdaq composite COMP, -0.22 percent fell 0.2 percent to 14,644.95. The performance of small-cap stocks has continued to trail that of the larger market. A new set of earnings reports from banks, airlines, and other companies, as well as the newest data showing another jump in inflation, elicited conflicting reactions from investors. They also kept an eye on the Federal Reserve chair’s latest statements on inflation, in which he repeated the Fed’s opinion that the rise in costs across the economy is just temporary. “Investors are focusing on earnings right now because they still believe what the Fed says about inflation (and) that it is too early to start raising rates and perhaps impede a recovering economy,” said Sam Stovall, CFRA’s chief financial analyst. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.13 percent rose 0.1 percent to 34,993.23 points. In testimony to a House committee, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that inflation will likely remain elevated but will eventually fall, reiterating the central bank’s position that increasing prices is a temporary effect of the strengthening economy. The majority of long-term bond yields were lower. Late Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note decreased to 1.34 percent from 1.41 percent. In oil trading, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s benchmark U.S. crude CLQ21, -0.86 percent slid 73 cents to $72.40 a barrel in electronic trading. On Wednesday, it fell $2.12 to $73.13 per barrel. Brent oil BRNU21, -0.78 percent, the worldwide benchmark, fell 71 cents to $74.05 a barrel. The U.S. dollar USDJPY, -0.10 percent slipped to 109.88 Japanese yen from 109.97 yen in currency trade./n
