HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower Monday after U.S. shares ended their latest winning week on Friday, even as Nvidia shares continued to cool after their surprise supernova run.
US futures and oil prices fell.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7% to 38,869.94, making it the only major benchmark in Asia to post gains on Monday.
The yen weakened to 159.93 per dollar in morning trading.
The minutes of the Japanese central bank’s latest policy meeting released on Monday put renewed pressure on the yen as it indicated that “Any change in policy rates should only be considered after economic indicators confirm that, for example, CPI inflation is clear started to decline.” recovery and medium to long-term inflation expectations have increased.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Masato Kanda was reported as saying that officials are ready to intervene at any time to support the currency.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2% to 17,815.42, while the Shanghai Composite lost 1% to 2,969.59.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7% to 7,740.80. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.7% to 2,763.95.
On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 5,464.62, but stayed close to Tuesday’s record and completed its eighth winning week in the last nine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1% to 39,150.33, while the Nasdaq index fell 0.2% to 17,689.36.
Nvidia once again swept the market after a 3.2% decline. The company’s shares have risen more than 1,000% since October 2022 on the back of frenzied demand for its chips, which are driving much of the world’s move toward artificial intelligence technology, and it briefly supplanted Microsoft this week as the most valuable company on Wall Street.
But nothing stays up forever, and Nvidia’s stock price declines over the past two days sent the stock into its first losing week in the past nine days.
Much of the rest of Wall Street was relatively quiet, aside from a few outliers.
In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields initially fell after a report showed business activity in countries that use the euro is weaker than economists expected. Concerns for the continent are already high ahead of French elections that could further roil financial markets.
The weak economic activity report led to a drop in interest rates in Europe, initially putting pressure on government bond yields. But US yields recovered much of these losses after another report later in the morning said US business activity could be stronger than thought.
Total manufacturing growth reached the highest level in 26 months, according to S&P Global’s preliminary analysis of activity among U.S. manufacturing and services companies. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, that strength may come without a simultaneous increase in inflationary pressures.
“Historical comparisons indicate that the latest decline brings the survey’s price gauge in line with the Fed’s inflation target of 2%,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The Federal Reserve is in a precarious situation, trying to slow the economy just enough through high interest rates to bring high inflation down to 2%. The trick is that it wants to lower interest rates at exactly the right time. If we wait too long, the economic slowdown could turn into a recession. If it is too early, inflation could accelerate again.
The yield on the 10-year government bond fell to 4.25% from 4.26% at the end of Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury note, which better tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.73% from 4.74%.
In other trades Monday, U.S. benchmark crude lost 8 cents to $80.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude lost 1 cent to $84.32 a barrel.
The euro rose from $1.0691 to $1.0695.
