BANGKOK — Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a lackluster day on Wall Street, where selling of technology stocks pulled benchmarks lower.
U.S. futures
ES00,
YM00,
were flat and oil prices fell.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index
JP:NIK
fell 0.7% after data showed factory output falling in January at the fastest pace since May 2020, although retail sales were stronger than expected.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HK:HSI
surged 0.9% and the Shanghai Composite index
CN:SHCOMP
jumped 1.5%. The smaller index in Shenzhen
CN:399106
was up 2.5% after regulators released new measures to support markets including closer oversight of financial derivatives.
South Korea’s Kospi
KR:180721
slipped 0.3% while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200
AU:XJO
edged 0.1% higher.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500
SPX
slipped 0.2%, to 5,069.76, continuing its quiet and listless run since setting a record last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
dipped 0.1% to 38,949.02. The Nasdaq composite
COMP
sank 0.5%, to 15,947.74, a day after pulling within 0.1% of its record set in 2021.
Treasury yields also eased in the bond market after a report said the U.S. economy likely grew a touch slower in late 2023 than earlier estimated. The economy continues to defy expectations of a recession despite high interest rates meant to bring down inflation.
A 1.3% drop for Nvidia
NVDA,
and 1.8% slump for Google’s parent company, Alphabet
GOOG,
GOOGL,
were two of the heaviest weights on the market. They’re among a small group of Big Tech stocks that have been disproportionately responsible for the S&P 500’s run to records.
Such concentration in the market can be a concerning signal, according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Broad gains among a wide variety of stocks are typically a more favorable sign that the market’s strength is sustainable.
In other trading Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil
CLJ24,
gave up 10 cents to $78.44 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude
BRNJ24,
the international standard, shed 9 cents to $82.06 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar
USDJPY,
fell to 149.83 Japanese yen from 150.69 yen.