Asian Stocks Showed Declines Following Record Highs On Wall Street

Meanwhile, a slowdown in US inflation and China’s recent plans to bolster its critical but struggling property sector had boosted equities.

Sophia Cruz•Wednesday, May 22, 2024•1 min read

In today’s trading session, Asian markets mostly declined as US stocks hit new record highs. Record highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq offered limited motivation for buying, despite a lack of catalysts, as investors awaited insights into interest rates from the Federal Reserve’s May policy decision minutes.

Asian Stocks Showed Declines Following Record Highs On Wall Street

Meanwhile, a slowdown in US inflation and China’s recent plans to bolster its critical but struggling property sector had boosted equities, but as the initial enthusiasm fades, traders are now taking a breather.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped by 0.9% to 38,617.10 after Japan reported an increase in its trade deficit last month, with rising import costs outpacing an 8% year-over-year rise in exports. The data came in weaker than analysts had anticipated. The trade balance recorded a 462.5 billion (yen) deficit, reversing from a 387 billion (yen) surplus.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 0.1% to 19,201.83, while the Shanghai Composite index remained almost flat at 3,159.16.

In South Korea, the Kospi was nearly unchanged at 2,723.46 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.1% to 7,848.10. Trade volume was moderate at 476 million shares, valued at 12.1 trillion won ($8.92 billion), with 474 to 402. Foreigners bought a net 296 billion won worth of local shares, while individuals offloaded a net 261 billion won. Institutions sold a net of 32.1 billion won.

Analysts noted that Seoul shares ended nearly flat as investors awaited guidance on the future direction of US key interest rates from the upcoming Federal Reserve minutes.

Taiwan’s Taiex rose by 1.5% as shares in major player Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. surged by 2.7%. Markets in Thailand were closed for a holiday.

Check out our free forex signals
Follow the top economic events on FX Leaders economic calendar
Trade better, discover more Forex Trading Strategies
Open a FREE Trading Account

ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.