HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after stocks rose on Wall Street and U.S. bond yields rose as election-related issues weighed on markets globally.
U.S. futures fell and oil prices rose. The Japanese yen fell to nearly a new 38-year low, hitting 161.67 yen per dollar on Tuesday morning.
The Nikkei 225, Tokyo’s main index, rose 1.1% to 40,074.69 as the weaker yen prompted buying of export-oriented stocks.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 7,718.20. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,781.92, despite data from Statistics Korea showing the country’s consumer inflation slowed to an 11-month low in June.
Hong Kong markets were higher after a holiday break on Monday, with the Hang Seng rising 0.3% to 17,775.84 and the Shanghai Composite index rising slightly 0.1% to 2,995.78.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.6%, while Bangkok’s SET fell 0.4%.
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 5,475.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 39,169.52 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8% to 17,879.30.
Some of the strongest action globally came across the Atlantic, with the CAC 40 index in Paris rising as much as 2.8% before settling for a 1.1% gain. Results from France suggested that a far-right political party might fail to secure a decisive majority in the country’s parliamentary elections, raising hopes of a potential stalemate in the French government, which would prevent a worst-case scenario in which the far right could push through policies with a clear majority that would massively increase the French government’s debt.
This is a big year for elections globally, with voters heading to the polls later this week in the United Kingdom and soon elsewhere. In the United States, pollsters are gauging the impact of last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Investors are also considering the potential impact of a Supreme Court ruling Monday that grants former presidents broad immunity from prosecution, likely delaying the criminal case against Donald Trump until after the November election.
Trump Media & Technology Group, whose stock has risen and fallen with Trump’s White House bid, rose 1% to $33.08. However, shares of the company behind Trump’s Truth Social platform are still well below the $70 they hit earlier this year.
Treasury yields rose, as they did on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the Biden-Trump debate. The rising prospects of a Republican victory in November sent traders back to 2016 moves, strategists at Morgan Stanley said. In addition to pushing up yields, traders also piled into energy and financial stocks.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 4.46% from 4.39% late Friday and 4.29% late Thursday. It’s a reversal of the general trend since the spring, when the yield on the 10-year Treasury note topped 4.70% in late April.
Yields had been falling largely on hopes that inflation would slow enough to convince the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate later this year, from its highest level in more than two decades. High rates have weighed on the U.S. economy by making it more expensive to borrow money for a home, a car or anything else.
Hopes for rate cuts remained after a report Monday showed U.S. manufacturing weakened more than economists had expected last month. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, the Institute for Supply Management report also said price increases are slowing. Taken together, the data could provide more evidence that the Federal Reserve wants to see some relief from inflationary pressure before cutting rates.
The economic highlight of the week is likely to come Friday, when the U.S. government will say how many workers employers hired in June. Economists predict that total hiring slowed to 190,000 from 272,000 in May, closer to what Bank of America calls the “Goldilocks” figure of about 150,000, or about 25,000.
At that level, the US economy could continue to grow and avoid a recession without the economy becoming so strong that it puts too much upward pressure on inflation.
In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 15 cents to $83.53 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 23 cents to $86.83 a barrel.
The euro cost $1.0729, down from $1.0738.
