Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Gain Mainly After Wall St Rises to New Highs

BANGKOK – Stocks rose mostly in Asia on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rose to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing benchmark indexes higher.

US futures remained stable and oil prices fell.

This week we have few high-level economic reports, other than an update on Tuesday on how much American consumers are spending at US retailers and a preliminary analysis on Friday on the state of US business activity. US markets will be closed on Wednesday for the June holiday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1% to 38,482.11. Toyota engine Corp., a market heavyweight, gained 0.5% after its shareholders rejected a proposal to force Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker’s founder, to step down as chairman.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1% to 17,913.34 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 3,028.34.

In South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.7% to 2,763.92.

In Sydney, the S&OP/ASX 200 jumped 1% to 7,778.10 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its key interest rate unchanged.

“Although the Bank noted at its May meeting that inflation had fallen more gradually than expected, today it described it as ‘persistent’, emphasizing that overall inflation, as well as inflation excluding volatile items and travel, had not fallen further between April and December,” Capital Economics said in a commentary.

The “central bank noted that ‘the dynamism of economic activity is weak’, with the statement citing slow GDP growth, an increase in the unemployment rate and slower-than-expected wage growth,” it said.

India’s Sensex rose 0.3% to 77,218.48.

On Monday, US stocks rose to record levels as earnings from technology companies continue to push the market higher.

YOU&OP 500 rose 0.8%, surpassing the all-time high set on Thursday. It closed at 5,473.23. The Dow rose 0.5% to 38,778.10 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1% to 17,857.02.

Autodesk jumped 6.5%, one of the biggest gains in the market, after an investment firm said it will try to postpone the software company’s annual meeting so it can name new directors to the board.

Just behind Autodesk was chip company Broadcom, which rose 5.4% to add to last week’s gains after reporting better-than-expected profit and saying it would undergo a 10-for-one stock split to make its more affordable price. Broadcom followed Nvidiathe company that became the poster child for Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial intelligence technology and just executed a similar split.

Apple gained 2% and Microsoft rose 1.2%.

Super Micro Computer, which sells servers and storage systems used in artificial intelligence and other types of computing, jumped 5.1%, bringing its year-to-date gain to an impressive 212.2%.

Technology gains helped offset pressure in the stock market caused by rising Treasury yields in the bond market. The rise in yields eliminated part of the slack created last week, when better-than-expected results reports about inflation raised hopes that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates still this year.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.28% from 4.22% on Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.76% from 4.71%.

The Fed is trying to keep rates high long enough to slow the economy and end high inflation, but it wants to cut rates and reverse the momentum before the slowdown turns into a painful recession.

High interest rate They harm all types of investments and tend to hit some areas particularly hard. Utilities in S&OP 500 fell 1.1%, the biggest loss on Monday among the 11 sectors that make up the index. They often get hurt when bonds pay more interest and drive away income-seeking investors who would otherwise gravitate toward dividend-paying utility stocks.

GameStop was another laggard and fell 12.1% after its annual shareholder meeting. The stock has been rising and sinking as it rises waves of enthusiasm by small investors. At the meeting, CEO Ryan Cohen said the struggling video game retailer will focus on reducing costs, which would involve a “smaller network of stores.”

In other trading, benchmark US crude oil lost 17 cents to $80.16 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude gave up 11 cents to reach $81.44 per barrel.

The dollar rose to 157.65 Japanese yen from 156.38 yen. The euro was trading at $1.0724, down from $1.0702.