Asian stocks mixed as Wall Street ends 5-day winning streak

TOKYO – Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as Wall Street ended a five-day winning streak after the first big round of corporate earnings reports.

A woman walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as Wall Street ended a five-day winning streak after the first big round of corporate earnings reports. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 0.4% to 21,445.03 in morning trading.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4% to 6,667.60. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 1.1% to 2,069.41.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.3% to 28,546.68, while the Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1% to 2,941.04.

Investor sentiments are turning lower after President Donald Trump said Tuesday, “We have a long way to go on tariffs with China.”

“President Trump’s renewed threat of more tariffs on Chinese goods has investors bracing for weak trading in the Asian session today, tracking the negative sentiment in the U.S. overnight,” ING economists Nicholas Mapa and Prakash Sakpal said in their report.

The S&P 500 fell 10.26 points, or 0.3%, to 3,004.04. That marks the first decline in the benchmark index after five days of gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 23.53 points, or 0.1% to 27,335.63. The Nasdaq composite fell 35.39 points, or 0.4%, to 8,222.80. The Russell 2000 index rose 0.17 point to 1,562.

The latest round of U.S. corporate financial reports ramps up this week and investors have low expectations. Wall Street is forecasting a 2.6% drop in profit for S&P 500 companies. It is set to be the first back-to-back quarterly decline in three years.

Also highly anticipated is the Federal Reserve meeting at the end of the month. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise interest rates to help secure U.S. economic growth threatened by a trade war with China.

ENERGY:

Benchmark U.S. crude added 2 cents to $57.64 a barrel. It fell $1.96 to settle at $57.62 per barrel Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 21 cents to $64.56 a barrel.

CURRENCIES:

The dollar rose to 108.16 Japanese yen from 107.98 late Tuesday. The euro fell to $1.1213 from $1.1263. /gsg