Current:Home > NewsStock market today: Asian shares slide after tech, rising oil prices drag Wall St lower -ProfitPoint
Stock market today: Asian shares slide after tech, rising oil prices drag Wall St lower
Rekubit Exchange View
Date:2025-04-08 07:13:50
Stocks fell Wednesday in Asia after a slide in technology stocks dragged Wall Street lower ahead of a key report on U.S. inflation.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2% to 17,986,56 and the Shanghai Composite index sank 0.8% to 3,113.18.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.2% to 32,706.52, while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.1% lower, to 2,533.61. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.7% to 7,154.60.
Shares rose in India and Taiwan but fell in Southeast Asia.
Regional markets have been relatively quiet ahead of this week’s release of Chinese and U.S. economic data.
Wednesday will bring the latest monthly update on prices that U.S. consumers are paying across the country. Economists expect it to show that prices were broadly 3.6% higher last month than a year earlier.
Thursday will bring reports about inflation at the wholesale level and sales at U.S. retailers. Strong spending by U.S. households has helped keep the U.S. economy humming, but it could also be encouraging companies to keep trying to raise their prices further.
Stocks have been see-sawing in recent weeks amid the revived uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve is done with its avalanche of hikes to interest rates. The central bank has already pushed its main interest rate to the highest level in more than two decades, trying to get inflation back down to its target of 2%.
High interest rates work to undercut inflation by slowing anentire economy and knocking down prices for stocks and other investments.
Inflation has subsided from a peak of more than 9% last year, but a recent surge in oil prices has undermined that process and could compel the Federal Reserve to act again to tame inflation, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
“This scenario underscores the delicate balance between energy costs, inflationary pressures, and the central bank’s monetary policy actions, which can have profound implications for the broader economic landscape,” he said.
Still, traders overwhelmingly expect next week’s meeting for the Federal Reserve to end with interest rates staying where they are.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 4,461.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%, to 34,645.99 The Nasdaq composite dropped 1% to 13,773.61.
Software giant Oracle helped lead the losses for tech stocks after reporting its revenue for the latest quarter fell just short of what analysts expected. Its stock tumbled 13.5%, even though its profit topped expectations. Oracle’s forecast for how much revenue it will make in the current quarter also wasn’t as strong as some analysts expected.
Apple dropped 1.8% after it unveiled the latest models of its phones and other devices. The stock had soared through much of this year, which is crucial for many investors because it has more sway than other stocks on the S&P 500 as Wall Street’s most valuable company. But it’s been struggling since the end of July and has reported three straight quarters where its revenue fell from year-earlier levels.
Alphabet, meanwhile, fell 1.2% as an antitrust trial against Google opened in a federal courthouse. It’s the biggest such trial since regulators took Microsoft to court in 1998. The U.S. government is accusing Google of abusing its position as the world’s dominant search engine and forcing consumers to settle for inferior search results.
In other trading Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude was up 21 cents at $89.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $1.55 on Tuesday.
Brent crude oil, the international pricing standard, picked up 15 cents to $92.21 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 147.28 Japanese yen from 147.08 yen late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.0739 from $1.0755.
veryGood! (1647)
Related
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- How to keep your New Year's resolutions (Encore)
- Ukraine's Elina Svitolina missed a Harry Styles show to play Wimbledon. Now, Styles has an invitation for her.
- Vermont police officer, 19, killed in high-speed crash with suspect she was chasing
- Tarte Shape Tape Concealer Sells Once Every 4 Seconds: Get 50% Off Before It's Gone
- For 3 big Alabama newspapers, the presses are grinding to a halt
- Meta's Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has passed 100 million signups in 5 days
- Clothes That Show Your Pride: Rainbow Fleece Pants, Sweaters, Workout Leggings & More
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Damar Hamlin's 'Did We Win?' shirts to raise money for first responders and hospital
Ranking
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Air Pollution From Raising Livestock Accounts for Most of the 16,000 US Deaths Each Year Tied to Food Production, Study Finds
- Utilities Have Big Plans to Cut Emissions, But They’re Struggling to Shed Fossil Fuels
- For 3 big Alabama newspapers, the presses are grinding to a halt
- The FBI should have done more to collect intelligence before the Capitol riot, watchdog finds
- Ireland Baldwin Shares Top Mom Hacks and Nursery Tour After Welcoming Baby Girl
- Warming Trends: Google Earth Shows Climate Change in Action, a History of the World Through Bat Guano and Bike Riding With Monarchs
- Southwest promoted five executives just weeks after a disastrous meltdown
Recommendation
'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north
Colleen Ballinger faces canceled live shows and podcast after inappropriate conduct accusations
Southwest Airlines apologizes and then gives its customers frequent-flyer points
Be on the lookout for earthworms on steroids that jump a foot in the air and shed their tails
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
Epstein's sex trafficking was aided by JPMorgan, a U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuit says
Video game testers approve the first union at Microsoft
Climate Activists See ‘New Era’ After Three Major Oil and Gas Pipeline Defeats