The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached new heights on Thursday as the market's march higher carries on. The broad market index hovered around the flatline, while the tech-heavy index dropped 0.2%. Both indexes had hit new all-time intraday highs earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 50 points, or 0.1%. Costco shares gained 2% after the big-box retailer delivered solid September sales data, with total net sales for the five weeks ended Oct. 5 posting a notable increase versus last year. Delta Air Lines jumped 6% on better-than-expected earnings. The S&P...
The Hang Seng Index rose 79 points, or 0.3%, to close at 25,078 on Friday (August 29th), snapping a three-day decline driven by gains in consumer and technology stocks. The index gained 1.2% in August, its fourth consecutive monthly gain, driven by momentum in Chinese stocks, which are nearing a decade-high thanks to strong institutional inflows, attractive valuations, and pro-growth policies, particularly around AI innovation and technological self-sufficiency. The market pared earlier gains as US index futures fell sharply ahead of the PCE inflation data, the Fed's preferred benchmark,...
European stock markets are heading for a mixed open on Friday as attention turns to inflation prints from some of the region's biggest economies, along with the U.S. Price rise data is due from France, Spain, Italy and Germany, ahead of the flash August reading for the euro area next Tuesday. Stateside, investors will be monitoring the personal consumption expenditures price index, a key metric for the Federal Reserve. It comes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stoked expectations for an interest rate cut in September with a speech last week widely interpreted as dovish-tilting. Interest rate...
Japanese stocks plunged on profit-taking ahead of the release of US personal consumption expenditures data.The Topix index fell 0.5% to 3,075.18 as of 3:30 p.m. Tokyo time.The Nikkei fell 0.3% to 42,718.47."Investors are cautiously monitoring US economic indicators ahead of a possible US interest rate cut in September," said Naoki Fujiwara, senior investment manager at Shinkin Asset Management.The sell-off spread across sectors, hitting exporters such as electronics and automakers, as well as banks and insurance companies. Toyota Motor contributed the most to the Topix decline, falling 1.6%....
Hong Kong stocks rose 191 points or 0.8% to 25,183 on Friday morning trade, rising for the first session in four after Wall Street's S&P 500 and Dow Jones closed at record highs overnight on stronger-than-expected U.S. Q2 GDP growth. Gains were broad-based, led by consumer, financial, and property shares. Trip.com climbed 3.8% after logging stronger revenues, while Ping An Insurance jumped 2.7% on plans to buy more equities, following increased allocations to high-dividend Hong Kong-listed banks earlier this year. Pharma stocks also outperformed, with Wuxi Biologics up 5.2%, followed...
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Friday, breaking ranks from Wall Street gains as investors also assess a slate of economic data in the region. Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.31%, while the Topix lost 0.39% after core consumer prices in Tokyo rose at a slower pace in August. The Tokyo core CPI, which strips out fresh food but includes energy, climbed 2.5% from a year earlier, matching Reuters' economists' forecasts, and easing from July's 2.9% increase. The figure however remained above the Bank of Japan's 2% target. Japan's unemployment rate also eased to 2.3% in July, down from 2.5% the...