BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday amid hopes Western economies can avoid a recession despite higher rates of interest to chill inflation.
Hong Kong and Seoul advanced. Tokyo declined. Markets in China, India and Australia were closed for holidays.
Wall Street ended Wednesday little modified after recovering from a slump early within the day.
Investors are optimistic the USA and European economies can avoid a recession despite warnings by Federal Reserve and other central bank officials that rate hikes to chill economic growth and inflation will stay in place for an prolonged period.
“There’s increasing confidence the economy may not require a recession to tame the inflation beast,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a report.
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The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.9% to 22,464.77 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed 0.1% to 27,362.75.
The Kospi in Seoul gained 1.5% to 2,465.64. Recent Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta advanced while Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur declined.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index lost lower than 0.1% to 4,016.22 after rebounding from a morning lack of 1.7%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from an identical drop to find yourself lower than 0.1%, to 33,743.48. The Nasdaq composite fell 20.91 points, or 0.2%, to 11,313.36.
Analysts are forecasting S&P 500 corporations over the subsequent couple weeks will report their first drop in quarterly earnings per share since 2020 initially of the coronavirus pandemic.
Microsoft helped to cleared the path lower after forecasting lower earnings than expected. It fell 4.6% early within the day but recovered to finish down 0.6%.
Texas Instruments lost 1.1% after the corporate said it expects weaker demand across all its market outside of automotive. It was down as much as 3.1% at one point.
Traders expect the Fed to boost its benchmark lending rate by one other 0.25 percentage points at its next update on Feb. 1.
That will be one other reduction within the margin of increase from 0.5 percentage points last month and 4 hikes of 0.75 points earlier.
Many investors expect the Fed to ease off rate hike plans as economic activity cools and begin to chop rates before the tip of this yr. The Fed has said it expects to maintain rates high not less than through the tip of the yr to extinguish inflation.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 25 cents to $80.40 per barrel in electronic trading on the Recent York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 2 cents on Wednesday to $80.15. Brent crude, the worth basis for international oil trading, added 9 cents to $86.28 per barrel in London. It retreated 1 cent the previous session to $86.12.
The dollar fell to 129.34 yen from Wednesday’s 129.55 yen. The euro rose to $1.0921 from $1.0913.
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