On Friday, MANILAAsian equities fell back after a sharp decline that was mostly offset by increases in Alphabet and AI stocks.
After two days of advances following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a trade pact that would impose a 15% tax on Japanese imports, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 0.7% to 41,511.09. That is less than the 25% rate Trump had previously stated will take effect on August 1.
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Tokyo, the capital of Japan, saw a 2.9% annual increase in inflation in July, down from 3.1% in June, according to data released on Friday. Although underlying Tokyo pricing pressures are still high, the Japanese government’s efforts to curb inflation are having an impact, according to a commentary by ING Economics. It said the central bank would probably increase its inflation projection, but it still expects the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates unchanged at its July 30-31 meeting.
The Shanghai Composite index down 0.3% to 3,593.38 on the Chinese markets, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% to 25,383.07.
During a difficult bilateral summit in Beijing on Thursday that was marred by significant disagreements over trade and the conflict in Ukraine, they jointly issued a plea to action on climate change.
In an effort to reach an agreement with Beijing before a tariff truce that ends on August 12, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced that he will meet with Chinese officials in Stockholm, Sweden, next week. Trump has stated a.
Whether the tariff ceasefire be extended is a major question for markets. Although we anticipate that an agreement can be reached, ING Economics stated that markets will be keenly monitoring any changes to the present tariff rates in the interim.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 8,673.80, while South Korea’s Kospi increased 0.3% to 3,199.91.
The Sensex dipped 0.1% in India, and the Taiex fell 0.1% in Taiwan.
The S&P 500 closed at 6,363.35 on Thursday, up 0.1% from the previous day’s peak. The Nasdaq composite increased 0.2% to a record 21,057.96, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 44,693.91.
increased by 1% as the firm that powers YouTube and Google reported a higher-than-expected profit for the most recent quarter. It has stated that it is boosting its budget for AI chips and other investments by $10 billion to $85 billion this year, indicating a greater emphasis on artificial intelligence technologies.
This contributed to the 1.7% increase in Nvidia’s shares as well as other AI-related stocks. Since the chip company is the biggest on Wall Street in terms of value, it was the single most powerful factor driving the S&P 500 higher.
However, the market was controlled by an 8.2% decline for Tesla. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle firm released spring results that were either above or about what experts had anticipated. Musk is attempting to draw attention to Tesla’s forays into robotics and artificial intelligence.
However, Musk stated that more difficult quarters might be ahead as we’re in this strange transition time when we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the U.S. The main focus is still on how Musk’s political involvement is alienating potential customers.
Despite the possibility that they could trigger a recession and raise inflation, stocks have been generally rising for weeks on the expectation that President Donald Trump will achieve trade agreements with other nations that would reduce his high suggested tariffs.
The benchmark U.S. crude oil price rose 13 cents to $66.16 a barrel in other transactions on Friday. The global benchmark, Brent crude, increased 12 cents to $68.48 a barrel.
The value of the US dollar increased somewhat from 147.00 to 147.21 Japanese yen. The euro dropped from $1.1748 to $1.1737. ___
Stan Choe, an AP Business Writer, made a contribution.
