TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Tuesday after Wall Street benchmarks reached more milestones.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% in morning trading to 41,386.80. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7% to 7,819.30. South Korea’s Kospi edged up nearly 0.1% to 2,859.63. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.4% to 17,450.73, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, inching down to 2,921.88.
“Risk-taking will still likely be more measured ahead of the Federal Reserve Chair’s testimony and the key U.S. inflation release this week,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite each notched all-time highs after finishing with gains of 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up an early gain and closed 0.1% lower.
Wall Street indexes have been gaining ground steadily over the last several months, and that has helped push the benchmark S&P 500 index to 35 records so far this year.
“The current market is positive and steady to a nearly unprecedented degree,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “It’s extremely rare to see these types of consistent gains with almost no volatility.”
Gains in tech stocks, including several chipmakers, tempered declines in communication services, energy and other sectors of the S&P 500. Nvidia rose 1.9%, Broadcom added 2.5% and Advanced Micro Devices finished with a 3.9% gain.
Specialty glassware maker Corning surged 12% for the biggest gain in the market Monday after raising its sales forecast.
Troubled airplane maker Boeing rose 0.5% after agreeing to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people. The government determined the company violated an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years.
Entertainment giant Paramount Global slid 5.3% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks after it agreed to merge with Skydance.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 5.66 points to 5,572.85. The Nasdaq added 50.98 points to close at 18,403.74. The Dow fell 31.08 points to 39,344.79.
Traders are looking ahead to several earnings reports this week including updates from Delta Air Lines on Thursday.
JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo will report results on Friday. The latest updates for banks could give Wall Street a clearer picture on how consumers are handling increased debt and whether banks are worried about payments and potential delinquencies.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addresses Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. The central bank has kept its benchmark interest rate at its highest level in more than two decades in an effort to tame inflation.
The Fed’s goal is to cool inflation back to 2% without slowing economic growth too much. Inflation is still squeezing consumers, but it has fallen significantly from its peak two years ago. Economic growth has slowed this year, but it remains relatively strong amid a solid jobs market and consumer spending.
The central bank will get more updates on inflation at the consumer level on Thursday. Wall Street expects the latest government report to show inflation easing to 3.1% in June from 3.3% in May.
A report for inflation at the wholesale level, before costs are passed on to consumers, is expected Friday.
Inflation is seemingly stuck at around 3% by most measures. That has prompted more caution from the Fed and dampened expectations for the number of anticipated rate cuts this year. Most experts are expecting one rate cut from the Fed this year, but not until September. The Fed holds its next policy meeting later this month.
Treasury yields were relatively stable in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.27% from 4.28% late Friday.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude shed 26 cents to $82.07 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, slid 27 cents to $85.48 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 161.00 Japanese yen from 160.78 yen.
Analysts said the euro was showing stability despite the ample political uncertainty after the recent French elections. The outcome was being seen as preferable to a possibly more disruptive outcome with a majority win by the far-right or far-left, they said.
The euro cost $1.0826, little changed from $1.0828.
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AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed to this report.
