Asian Stocks Slip After Wall Street Hits Records on Tech Rally
Asian equities mostly retreated on Friday, tracking Wall Street’s record-setting session driven by technology giants Nvidia and Intel.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 reversed early gains to close down 1.4% at 44,667.88 after the Bank of Japan kept its short-term policy rate unchanged at 0.5%. Fresh data showed annual inflation slowed to 2.7% in August, the lowest in 10 months, down from 3.1% in July.
Elsewhere in the region:
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up 0.1% to 26,576.59, while the Shanghai Composite eased 0.1% to 3,830.65, as investors awaited a scheduled call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on tariffs and a potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 8,799.80, rebounding from Thursday’s losses after soft labour market data.
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South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.7% to 3,436.48.
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India’s Sensex slipped 0.4%, and Taiwan’s Taiex edged down by the same margin.
On Wall Street, all three main indices closed at record highs on Thursday, powered by the Federal Reserve’s rate cut and outsized tech gains.
Intel surged 22.8%, its biggest one-day gain since October 1987, after Nvidia announced a US$5bn investment in the company. Nvidia shares advanced 3.5%.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 6,631.96, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3% to 46,142.42, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.9% to 22,470.73.
