BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed Thursday in Asia after stocks on Wall Street retreated, weighed down by losses for technology shares.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.7% to 38,400.00 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.8% to 8,473.30.
South Korea’s Kospi was unchanged at 2,503.01 after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to relieve pressure on the economy.
The Bank of Korea cut its key rate by a quarter percentage point to 3% and lowered its outlook for the country’s economic growth from to 2.2% from 2.4% for this year and to 1.9% from 2.1% for 2025.
Chinese shares fell as investors sold to lock in profits from recent gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 1.3% to 19,344.07 and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3% to 3,299.87.
U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, and will reopen for a half day on Friday.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.4% to 5,998.74, even though more stocks in the index notched gains than ended lower. The loss snapped a seven-day winning streak for the benchmark index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, its first loss after five gains, to 44,722.06. The Dow and S&P 500 remain near the all-time highs they set on Tuesday.
The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, fell 0.6% to 19,060.48.
Losses for tech heavyweights like Nvidia, Microsoft and Broadcom were the drag on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia fell 1.2%. Its huge value gives it outsized influence on market indexes. Microsoft fell 1.2% and Broadcom finished 3.1% lower.
Several personal computer makers also helped pull the market lower following their latest earnings reports.
HP sank 11.4% after giving investors a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast for its current quarter. Dell slid 12.2% after its latest quarterly revenue fell short of Wall Street forecasts.
Gains for financial and health care companies helped temper the market’s losses. Berkshire Hathaway rose 0.9% and Merck & Co. added 1.5%.
The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy expanded at a healthy 2.8% annual pace from July through September, leaving its initial estimate unchanged. The growth was driven by strong consumer spending and a surge in exports.
Consumers have been driving economic growth, but the latest round of earnings reports from retailers shows a mixed and more cautious picture.
Department store operator Nordstrom fell 8.1% after warning investors about a trend toward weakening sales that started in late October. Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters jumped 18.3% after beating analysts’ third-quarter financial forecasts.
Consumers are feeling the pinch of higher prices: The government’s personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, rose to 2.3% in October from 2.1% in September.
Overall, inflation has been falling broadly since it peaked more than two years ago. The PCE, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, was just below 7.3% in June of 2022. Another measure of inflation, the consumer price index, peaked at 9.1% at the same time.
The latest data suggest the decline in inflation is stalling as it nears the Fed’s target of 2%. The central bank started raising its benchmark interest rate from near-zero in early 2022 to a two-decade high by the middle of 2023 and held it there until it began cutting it in September. A second cut followed in November.
Wall Street expects a similar quarter-point cut at the central bank’s upcoming meeting in December, but President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China when he takes office in January. That could raise prices on many products, raising inflation and prompting the Fed to rethink future cuts to interest rates.
In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 15 cents to $68.57 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, also shed 15 cents to $72.15 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 151.56 Japanese yen from 151.12 yen. The euro fell to $1.0555 from $1.0567.
Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the AP’s business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career.