Asian shares were mixed on Friday, with Chinese shares paring earlier losses after announcing new measures to revive the ailing property market.
U.S. futures were little changed, with the contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading near 40,000 after surpassing that level for the first time on Thursday.
China’s central bank said on Friday it was lowering required down payments for home loans and lowering interest rates for the purchase of first and second homes, among other measures. The announcements came after officials in Beijing reported continued weakness in the economy, especially in the real estate sector.
The government was expected to hold a press conference on real estate policy later on Friday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.7% to 19,512.54 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.8% to 3,119.49.
Real estate developers were among the biggest winners.
Shares of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted developer with loans of more than $300 billion, rose nearly 18%, while China Vanke, another threatened real estate conglomerate, rose 9.9%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% to 38,787.38, while the Australian S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.9% to 7,814.40.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% to 2,724.62.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 39,869.38 after reaching a top of 40,000 points. The S&P 500 index, which is widely followed on Wall Street, fell 0.2% to 5,297.10, and the Nasdaq index fell 0.3% to 16,698.32. All three indexes rose to record highs on Wednesday.
Deere weighed on the market, falling 4.7% despite reporting stronger-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. It lowered its forecast for next fiscal year earnings below analysts’ expectations as farmers buy fewer tractors and other equipment.
Homebuilders also helped drag the market down after a weaker-than-expected report on the homebuilding sector. They gave back some of their big gains from the day before, when hopes of lower mortgage rates sent them sharply higher. DR Horton fell 4.2%, Lennar fell 3.3% and PulteGroup fell 2.8%.
Also down were GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which fell for the second day in a row after their breathtaking starts to the week. GameStop fell 30% but is still up almost 59% year to date. AMC Entertainment lost 15.3%.
Such declines helped offset a 7% gain for Walmart, which reported stronger earnings for its latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer also said sales for the year could be higher than previously forecast.
Walmart’s strength could be an encouraging signal for the broader economy. Concerns have grown about whether U.S. households can keep up with still-high inflation and more expensive credit card payments, especially households at the lower end of the income spectrum.
Chubb rose 4.7% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it had built an ownership stake in the insurer.
Better-than-expected earnings figures have been one of the main reasons why US stock indexes have soared to records overall in May after a difficult April. Another country has revived hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut its key interest rate at least once this year. The Fed has kept its federal funds rate at the highest level in more than two decades.
A series of worse-than-expected inflation reports at the start of the year had jeopardized the potential for such cuts, but more encouraging data have since arrived.
A report Thursday showed slightly more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, though the number remains low compared to history. Others said production growth in the mid-Atlantic was weaker than hoped and import prices rose more than expected.
In other trading early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude rose 33 cents to $79.56 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 50 cents to $83.77 a barrel.
The US dollar rose from 155.40 yen to 155.65 Japanese yen. The euro fell from $1.0868 to $1.0861.
