Asian stocks fall after Wall St rises on tech gains
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets declined Tuesday after Wall Street rose on gains for tech stocks and reassurance by the U.S. Federal Reserve of support for an economic recovery.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney retreated.
Overnight, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.7% as big technology companies led stocks broadly higher. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft advanced.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that while the economy was improving, a recovery is “far from complete." In testimony to Congress, he said the Fed “will continue to provide the economy the support it needs for as long as it takes.”
Powell “kept markets happy” by saying "there was still a long way to go” before tighter monetary policy is justified, Robert Carnell of ING said in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.2% to 3,402.27 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo opened higher but had declined 0.4% at midday to 29,059.91.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 1.4% to 28,494.09. Chinese search engine operator Baidu Inc. rose 0.2% on its first trading day after the company joined the Hong Kong exchange and raised $3.1 billion in a share sale.
The Kospi in Seoul shed 0.9% to 3,008.48 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost 0.1% to 6,745.40.
India's Sensex opened down 0.1% at 50,034.07. New Zealand and Singapore advanced while Jakarta declined.
Investors are wavering between optimism that coronavirus vaccines that might allow business and travel to return to normal and fears of higher inflation after struggling economies were flooded with credit and government spending.
They have been reassured by Powell's comment earlier that the Fed's key interest rate will be kept near zero through 2023 even as inflation is forecast to pick up.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 3,940.59. The...