Hong Kong, Oct 19 (AP) Stocks around the world were mixed on Monday as volatility in technology stocks persisted in Asia, while stocks in France led losses in Europe following mass protests against the rising cost of living and poor school conditions.
US equity futures edged higher ahead of another week of American corporate earnings results.
Oil prices fell around 2 per cent after US President Donald Trump’s decision to waive sweeping sanctions on Russia, including on Russian energy.
In early European trading, France’s CAC 40 sank 1.3 per cent to 7,854.31 after violent protests over the weekend. More than 2,000 people were arrested nationwide, and French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the violent demonstrators in a televised address.
Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 per cent to 10,795.31, while Germany’s DAX dropped 1 per cent to 25,360.14.
In Asia, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index was up 1.8 per cent to 5,768.01 on Monday, after falling sharply last week. The Kospi is down more than 17 per cent over the past month, and still well below the 9,000 mark it crossed in June at its peak on the global AI frenzy.
Samsung Electronics was up 1.2 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix added 0.4 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.6 per cent to 64,916.70. Japanese chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 2.6 per cent, and OpenAI investor SoftBank Group dropped 2 per cent.
A sell-off of technology shares from Asia to Wall Street recently put downward pressure on stock markets, as investor concerns grow over the sustainability of the artificial intelligence boom.
“We’ve been arguing for a while that volatility in tech stocks would pick up as the AI bubble continued to inflate: sharp and short-lived sell-offs were common as the dotcom bubble inflated, for example, even as the market ultimately made very large gains on net,” Capital Economics Head of Markets for Asia Pacific Thomas Mathews wrote in a commentary Monday.
Hong Kong’s stock market was closed because of a holiday. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.4 per cent higher to 3,730.92, after China reported better-than-expected growth of 4.5 per cent for its economy in the July-September quarter.
CXMT, China’s leading memory chipmaker, fell more than 7 per cent despite the company forecasting a strong profit for the first nine months.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.4 per cent higher at 8,845.70.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.6 per cent. India’s Sensex slipped 1.2 per cent.
Indonesia’s benchmark stock index fell over 5 per cent at its peak, to its lowest level since 2020, after it plunged over 11 per cent on Friday following a warning from index provider MSCI that it would downgrade the country from its “emerging market” status.
On Friday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 declined 1.1 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 per cent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 2.1 per cent.
Investors this week are watching for more big corporate earnings results from the US, including Meta, Netflix, General Motors, Tesla and IBM. Strong company earnings have been one factor that’s been keeping US stocks robust lately.
As technology shares face rising uncertainties, experts say government bonds might stand to benefit as investors look for relatively safe assets, though the bond market has also been turbulent over the past few weeks.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury eased to around 5.08 per cent early Monday, compared with roughly 5.13 per cent Friday. It had hit 5.35 per cent earlier this month at its highest level since 2002, as inflation worries from the Iran war-driven energy shock and growing US government debt pushed yields higher — investors demanded more in return because of the additional risks.
Oil prices were down early Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, falling 2.1 per cent to USD 107.55 per barrel.
Benchmark US crude dropped 1.9 per cent to USD 97.19 per barrel.
Oil fell after Trump late Friday signed an executive order to put new broad US sanctions against Russia on hold just days before they were to come into effect, drawing disappointment from Ukraine, with the move likely resulting in more energy exports from Russia.
Trump’s decision came not long after he said earlier this month he had reached a diesel deal with Russia in an attempt to bring down elevated US fuel prices ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
But even with the decline, oil prices have remained elevated compared with those seen before the Iran war. Global oil supply risks are still high amid tensions in the Middle East, including uncertainty surrounding oil transport in the Strait of Hormuz, adding upward pressure to prices.
The US dollar rose to 158.19 Japanese yen from 158.10 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1213, down from USD 1.1234.
(PTI News)
