Asian Stocks Close Mixed as Big Tech Drags S&P 500 and Nasdaq Down

In today’s trading, Asian stock markets are mostly trading lower, following mixed signals from Wall Street overnight.

Written by: Sophia Cruz • Tuesday, August 27, 2024 • 1 min read

Last updated: Tuesday, August 27, 2024

In today’s trading, Asian stock markets are mostly trading lower, following mixed signals from Wall Street overnight. Traders are taking profits and exercising caution ahead of the US consumer confidence report for August, due later today, and key US inflation data expected later this week. This comes after Asian markets were mostly higher yesterday.

Asian Stocks Close Mixed as Big Tech Drags S&P 500 and Nasdaq Down

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly indicated on Monday that it is “hard to imagine” not cutting interest rates in September, echoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent remarks about the need to start adjusting monetary policy. Daly emphasized that “the direction of change is down, and the time to adjust is now,” suggesting her support for a rate cut at the Fed’s upcoming meeting next month.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Index ended the morning session at 38,055.62, down 54.60 points or 0.14%, after reaching a low of 37,911.32 earlier. Japanese shares saw a notable decline on Monday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 17,842.97, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% to 2,846.82.

China’s industrial profits increased by 4.1% in July compared to the same month last year, with overall profits for the first seven months rising by 3.6%. This brought some optimism to the market despite sluggish domestic demand, a housing downturn, and employment concerns.

However, new tariffs on China are casting a shadow over its manufacturing outlook. On Monday, Canada announced a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum, effective October 1. These tariffs will apply to all EVs shipped from China, including many Tesla vehicles produced there.

Meanwhile, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% to 8,071.20, and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.3% to 2,689.15.

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.