Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
TOKYO — Asian shares mostly declined Wednesday following a slip on Wall Street that snapped an eight-day winning streak, the longest of the year.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.8% in morning trading to 37,741.53. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.5% to 7,958.40. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.1% to 2,692.81. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.9% to 17,348.77, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 2,858.98.
In Tokyo, Japan’s Finance Ministry reported a 621 billion yen ($4.3 billion) trade deficit in July, as surging global prices pushed imports higher, growing nearly 17% from a year. Robust imports underlined better consumer spending amid rising wages. Japan’s exports also grew, rising 10%, to destinations like the U.S. and China.
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Market watchers have their eyes on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speech later this week at an economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Expectations aren’t high he will announce anything dramatic now, with nearly everyone expecting the Fed to cut interest rates next month. But markets are looking for signs of how big that cut might be.
“We might get a read on how confident or otherwise the Fed is that inflation has been tamed, and from this, markets may project the size and scope of rate cuts we might expect to see between now and the end of next year,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
“The Fed chairman’s take on the health of the jobs market will also be interesting to watch.”
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% Tuesday. The S%P 500 is still just 1.2% below its all-time high set last month. It has roared back from an earlier drop, at one point to nearly 10% below its record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.
Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the market after falling 2.1%. The chip company is one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology has made it one of the U.S. stock market’s most valuable companies at roughly $3 trillion.
Boeing also weighed on the market after sinking 4.2%. Federal safety officials are requiring inspections of cockpit seats on Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Boeing also has stopped test flights of a new version of its 777 jetliner after discovering a damaged structural part. The new model has not yet been approved by regulators.
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Still, companies in the S&P 500 are on track to report their best growth in earnings per share since the end of 2021, according to FactSet.
In the U.S., high interest rates have been weighing on the economy after the Federal Reserve hiked them sharply in order to get inflation under control. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.81% from 3.87% late Monday.
All told, the S&P 500 slipped 11.13 points to 5,597.12. The Dow dipped 61.56 to 40,834.97, and the Nasdaq fell 59.83 to 17,816.94.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 33 cents to $74.04 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 5 cents to $77.15 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 145.44 Japanese yen from 145.13 yen. The euro cost $1.1122, down from $1.1132.
Rate raises by Japan’s central bank helped set off losses for markets around the world because it forced hedge funds to abandon a popular trade, where they borrowed Japanese yen cheaply and invested it elsewhere.
That included the worst day for Japan’s stock market since the Black Monday crash of 1987. The Bank of Japan since allayed market jitters by signaling future moves will be gradual.