TOKYO – Asian shares were trading mostly higher Thursday, after a Wall Street rally that followed profit reports from major companies.
At the beginning of trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 increased by almost 0.2% to reach 38,888.04. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia surged by 1.1% to 8,507.60. In South Korea, the Kospi rose by 0.7% to 2,526.21. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng saw a 0.2% increase to 20,640.73, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to reach 3,248.34.
In Japan, Honda Motor Co. experienced a slight decrease in stock value after reports indicated the potential unraveling of talks with Nissan Motor Corp. regarding a joint holding company. Conversely, Nissan’s shares rebounded and traded higher. The reports persisted on Thursday without immediate confirmation from either company.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 317 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%.
Mattel, a popular toymaker, saw a significant jump of 15.3% following better-than-expected profit results in the latest quarter. The success of its Hot Wheels brand offset some weaknesses in sales of Barbie and other dolls. Additionally, Mattel provided a profit forecast for the upcoming year that exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Amgen rallied 6.5% and was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. It reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected, thanks in part to growth for its Repatha medicine, which can lower bad cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack.
They helped offset a 7.3% drop for Alphabet, which sank even though Google’s parent company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on slowing growth for its cloud business, whose revenue fell short of forecasts. They also homed in on the $75 billion Alphabet is budgeting for investments this year, roughly $15 billion more than analysts expected, as it remains in the rush to develop artificial-intelligence technology.
Advanced Micro Devices fell 6.3% even though the chip company beat profit expectations for the latest quarter. While analysts called AMD’s results solid, they also asked why CEO Lisa Su did not give more details about expectations for the performance of its AI offerings specifically.
Uncertainty is also hanging over the global economy because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. After rocking financial markets around the world at the start of this week, worries about a potentially punishing global trade war have eased a bit after Trump gave 30-day reprieves for tariffs on both Mexico and Canada. That bolstered traders’ hopes that Trump sees tariffs as merely a tool for negotiation, rather than as a long-term policy.
In the meantime, Trump has pressed ahead with tariffs on Chinese goods, and Mericle expects tariffs to hit autos from the European Union, among other potential moves. That could drive a one-time boost to inflation, which could leave a widely followed measure of underlying inflation trends at 2.6% in December, above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
One of the fears hurting Wall Street is that the upward pressure on inflation could keep the Fed from cutting interest rates this year, after it began doing so in September in order to relax pressure on the economy and give the job market some help.
Yields in the bond market fell Wednesday after a report said growth for mining, finance and other U.S. services businesses was weaker last month than economists expected. The survey by the Institute for Supply Management found many businesses citing poor weather conditions.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.42% from 4.52% late Tuesday.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 23.60 points to 6,061.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 317.24 to 44,873.28, and the Nasdaq composite added 38.31 to 19,692.33.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S crude added 19 cents to $71.22 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 11 cents to $74.72 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched down to 152.23 Japanese yen from 152.55 yen. The euro cost $1.0394, down from $1.0407.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.
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