World shares mixed after another Wall St record day
Except for Paris CAC-40, bourses in Europe up; Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower, while Tokyo, Taiwan ended in the positive territory; European markets were trading on a mixed note; All major US stocks were up
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Bangkok: Stocks were mixed on Friday in Europe and Asia after Wall Street tapped fresh records, led by big gains in chipmakers. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1 per cent higher, to 18,201.03 and the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.2 per cent to 8,164.36. In London, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.7 per cent to 7,936.38. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1 per cent higher.
In Asian trading, Japan’s Nikkei-225 topped 41,000 for the first time early Friday but then fell back, closing up 0.2 per cent lower at 40,888.43. Chinese property and tech companies weighed on markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.2 per cent to 16,499.47 and the Shanghai Composite sank 1 per cent to 3,048.03. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 per cent to 7,770.60. India’s Sensex rose 0.3 per cent to 72,881.70. Bangkok’s SET shed 0.4 per cent and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.2 per cent.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent to 5,241.53, setting an all-time high for a third straight day. Three out of every four stocks in the index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 per cent to 39,781.37, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 per cent to 16,401.84. Both indexes added to records set a day earlier. Micron surged 14.1 per cent and led chipmakers higher after reporting much stronger results for its latest quarter than expected. It also gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that topped analysts’ estimates, as it benefits from a rush into artificial intelligence. Chipmaker Broadcom climbed 5.6 per cent and was an even stronger force pushing the S&P 500 upward because of its larger size. It held an investor presentation a day earlier on its opportunities in AI.
A general frenzy around AI technology on Wall Street has sent some stocks to dizzying heights. Reddit climbed 48.4 per cent in its debut as a publicly traded stock. The eclectic bazaar of online communities offered its stock at an initial price of $34 a share. They helped to more than offset a 4.1 per cent slump for Apple after the Justice Department announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker. It accused the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation. Accenture was another weight on the market after dropping 9.3 per cent.
