Manila(Philippines), Oct 31: Asian shares are mixed after the US stock market sank from record heights as Wall Street sifted through various developments such as trade relations with China and profits of Big Tech giants.
US futures advanced and oil prices fell.
President Donald Trump hailed his talk Thursday with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, but major tensions remain between the world’s two largest economies.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.7 per cent to 52,201.05, touching fresh records after data showed industrial production rose 2.2 per cent month-on-month in September, beating market expectations and rebounding from a 1.5 per cent drop the previous month.
In Chinese markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.9 per cent to 26,050.08 and the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.6 per cent to 3,963.01.
Data released Friday showed factory activity in China contracted in October for a seventh straight month. The official NBS Manufacturing PMI fell to 49.0 from 49.8 in September.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4 per cent to 4,105.81, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2 per cent to 8,903.50. Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.5 per cent.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 1 per cent to 6,822.34, pulling further from its all-time high set on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2 per cent to 47,522.12. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.6% from its record set the day before, closing at 23,581.14.
Stock markets elsewhere in the world were mixed, coming off a highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. Trump rated his meeting with Xi as a “12” on a scale of zero to 10, saying he would cut tariffs.
But stocks had already run to records on expectations for potentially bigger improvements in trade friction between Beijing and Washington.
Earnings of Big Tech companies were also feeling the pressure of high hopes. Meta Platforms dropped 11.3 per cent, cutting into what had been a 28.4 per cent jump for the year so far. It was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Analysts said investors were likely perturbed by how much Facebook’s parent company said it’s planning to spend in 2026. Companies across the industry have been on an investment spree to build out their artificial-intelligence capabilities, and the concern is whether it will all pay off.
“There are moments in market history when capital stops behaving like money and starts acting like obsession — when spending becomes the strategy, not the consequence. That’s exactly where we are now with artificial intelligence,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Microsoft sank 2.9 per cent even though it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts pointed to how it also expects to spend more on investments in 2026 than in 2025, while growth for its Azure business may have fallen a bit short of some investors’ expectations.
On the winning side of Big Tech was Alphabet. Shares of Google’s parent company climbed 2.5 per cent after its profit and revenue for the latest quarter easily topped analysts’ expectations.
How such companies do matters incredibly for investors. The trio of Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft alone account for 14.5 per cent of the total value of all the companies in the S&P 500 index, which dictates the movements for many 401(k) accounts. That means movements for them and a handful of other Big Tech companies can easily overshadow what hundreds of other stocks are doing.
In other dealings early Friday, benchmark US crude oil shed 42 cents to USD 60.15 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 42 cents to USD 63.95.
The U.S. dollar fell to 153.95 Japanese yen from 154.14 yen. The euro rose to USD 1.1573 from USD 1.1566. (AP)
