Mixed Trading On Asian Bourses Despite Wall St Advances

Wall St anticipates key economic reports this holiday-shortened week, including November’s new home sales data and a weekly unemployment benefits update. US markets closed early Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain shut on Wednesday for Christmas

Hong Kong: Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday after stocks in Wall Street shook off a choppy start to finish higher the previous day as it kicked off a holiday-shortened week.US futures were little changed and oil prices rose. Honda shares surged more than 16 per cent as the Japanese auto giant announced an up to 1.1 trillion-yen ($7 billion) share buyback and meanwhile, held a merger talk with Nissan. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Nissan’s share shed 0.1 per cent on Tuesday.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3 per cent in morning trading to 39,055.35. South Korea’s consumer sentiment sharply dropped in December amid rising concerns over political uncertainty following the parliament’s impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The decline hit the lowest level since November 2022, when a Halloween crowd crush resulted in 159 fatalities. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3 per cent to 2,436.67. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.2 per cent to 20,119.47 and the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.7 per cent at 3,374.58. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.3 per cent to 8,225.00. Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.5 per cent, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. shares reaching a record high during the early trading day.

On Monday, the S&P 500 ended 0.7 per cent higher to 5,974.07 after having been down 0.5 per cent in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also recovered from an early slide to eke out a 0.2 per cent gain to 42,906.95. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1 per cent to 19,764.89. Traders got a look at a new snapshot of US consumer confidence Monday. The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8. The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update followed several generally strong economic reports last week.

One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1 per cent annualised rate during the summer, faster than what was thought earlier. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid. A report on Friday said that a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists had expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed.