In this Jan. 27, 2021 file photo, pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Stocks were solidly lower in early trading Tuesday, May 4, dragged down by banks and big technology companies like Apple and Google. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 4, 2021. Asian shares were mixed Tuesday after strong corporate earnings and economic data lifted stocks on Wall Street. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)BEIJING (AP) — Major Asian stock markets advanced Wednesday after Wall Street fell, while Chinese and Japanese markets were closed for holidays.
Overnight, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.7%, dragged down by more declines for tech stocks including Apple and Microsoft.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was little changed at 28,561.70 while the S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney added 0.4% to 48,453.94.
New Zealand's benchmark lost 1.1%, Singapore was down 0.8% and Bangkok fell 0.7%.
“With relatively light news flow and macro data, price action in the region was subdued in holiday-thinned conditions,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.
Investors are watching corporate earnings and looking ahead to Friday's U.S. jobs data.
Most economic data point to improving conditions but markets worry about renewed coronavirus outbreaks and a possible uptick in inflation.
Remarks by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday appeared to stoke those worries. Selling on Wall Street accelerated after Yellen said interest rates may have to rise to keep the economy from overheating. She later downplayed her comments during an interview with The Wall Street Journal after markets closed.
On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the economic outlook has “clearly brightened” in the United States but the recovery is uneven.
The S&P 500 declined to 4,164.66. The index hit an all-time high last Thursday.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 261.61 points, or 1.9%, to 13,663.50.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% to 34,133.03.
Apple fell 3.5% and Facebook slid 1.3%. Google’s parent company dropped 1.5% and Amazon lost 2.2%.
More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results so far this earnings season, which show profit growth of 54%, according to FactSet.
Economists expect U.S. data due out Friday to show employers hired 975,000 workers last month as the economy accelerated out of the pandemic and vaccines rolled out nationwide. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 5.8% from 6%.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained 43 cents to $66.12. The contract rose $1.20 on Tuesday to $65.69 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 44 cents to $69.32 per barrel in London. It advanced $1.32 cents the previous session to $68.88 a barrel.
The dollar rose was unchanged at 109.30 yen. The euro rose to $1.2025 from $1.2009.
Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.
While Microsoft currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Looking to avoid the hassle of mudslinging, volatility, and uncertainty? You'd need to be out of the market, which isn’t viable. So where should investors put their money? Find out with this report.
Get This Free Report
