Global markets rise after Wall Street fall on Huawei anxiety
BEIJING – Global stock markets were mostly higher Tuesday after anxiety over U.S. curbs on sales to Chinese tech giant Huawei dragged down Wall Street.
Benchmarks in London, Frankfurt, Shanghai and Sydney advanced. Tokyo and Hong Kong declined.
People walk past an electronic board showing Hong Kong share index outside a local bank in Hong Kong, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday after anxiety over U.S. restrictions on sales to Chinese tech giant Huawei pulled Wall Street lower. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5% to 7,353.28 points and Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.5% to 12,098.29.
France’s CAC 40 was 0.2% higher at 5,368.56.
On Wall Street, futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.2% to 2,905.47 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.1% to 21,272.45.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed just 0.5% to 27,657.24 and Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.3% to 2,061.25.
Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 added 0.4% to 6,500.10 and Taiwan also gained. New Zealand and Singapore retreated.
Anxiety over U.S.-Chinese trade tension was reignited by Washington’s decision to require export licenses for technology sales to Huawei Technologies Ltd.
American officials say the biggest global maker of network gear for phone carriers is a security risk, which Huawei denies.
That followed new tariff hikes announced by both sides in a broader battle over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus.
Both sides are “seemingly digging in for a battle of attrition,” said Mizuho Bank in a report.
It said investors are trying to figure out the duration, the impact on profits and the “toxic atmosphere for American sales in China.”
On Monday, chipmakers led U.S. stocks lower as traders weighed the implications of the sales controls on Huawei, a major customer.
The U.S. government says suppliers including Huawei and its smaller Chinese rival, ZTE Corp., pose an espionage threat because they are beholden to China’s ruling Communist Party. Huawei denies it facilitates Chinese spying.
The S&P 500 lost 0.7% and the Dow fell 0.3%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite slid 1.5%.
Apple Inc. skidded after an analyst warned the iPhone maker’s growth prospects could dim as Washington and Beijing spar over trade.
Qualcomm, which gets about 65% of its revenue from China, slumped 6%. Broadcom, which gets nearly half of its revenue from China, also fell 6%.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 2 cents to $63.23 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 29 cents on Monday to close at $63.21. Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 20 cents to $71.77 per barrel in London. It lost 24 cents the previous session to $71.97.
CURRENCY: The dollar gained to 110.12 yen from Monday’s 110.06 yen. The euro declined to $1.1153 from $1.1169. /gg
