Asian shares mostly higher, tracking Wall Street advance

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced Tuesday in Asia after Wall Street shook off an early bout of unsettled trading and ended higher.

U.S. futures edged 0.1% higher and oil prices also gained.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng gained 0.9% to 15,313.22 after a 6.4% selloff the day before that took it to its lowest close in 14 years.

The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.7%, to 2,999.55.

The nosedive in Chinese stocks on Monday followed the conclusion of a Communist Party congress in Beijing where leader Xi Jinping gave himself an unprecedented third five-year term and installed key allies as top ruling party leaders, vanquishing officials viewed as pro-market reformers.

Xi wants a bigger Communist Party role in China’s business and technology development, raising fears centralized control will stunt an economy that already is slowing.

At a press briefing Tuesday, Hong Kong leader John Lee said his administration’s assessment showed market activities were running in an orderly way, though he urged investors to make careful decisions.

“Yes, volatility will be high, but our long-tested systems and response systems are in operation all the time. We have a strong response plan for different contingencies,” he said.

In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.2% to 27,301.50 while the Kospi in Seoul added 0.3% to 2,242.42. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 6,799.50.

Taiwan’s benchmark fell 1.2%, while India’s Sensex edged 0.2% higher.

On Wall Street on Monday, stocks extended gains from last week as investors geared up for a heavy week of earnings from big technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to 3,797.34, with technology, health care and financial stocks accounting for a big share of the gains. Only materials and real estate sector stocks fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% to 31,499.62, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 0.9% higher, at 10,952.61.

Small company stocks also rose. The Russell 2000 index climbed 0.4% to 1,748.40.

Google’s parent company, along with Facebook’s parent, Amazon and Apple are all reporting their latest financial results this week. They are among the priciest stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 and their earnings this week could mean big moves, up or down, for the broader market.

Several big companies outside of the tech sector are also reporting earnings this week, including Coca-Cola, General Motors and Caterpillar.

Trading has been volatile this month, but the major indexes are solidly higher entering the last full week of October after a couple of big market rallies last week. The S&P 500 is up 5.9% so far this month, while the Dow is up 9.7%. The Nasdaq is up a more modest 3.6%.

Investors are closely reviewing the latest round of corporate earnings to get a better picture of inflation’s impact on different areas of the economy. Prices on everything from clothing to food remain at their highest levels in four decades. That has put pressure on companies to raise prices and cut costs, while squeezing consumers.

The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been raising interest rates to tame inflation and those increases have been weighing on pricier stocks, like technology companies, by making less-risky bonds seem more attractive in a volatile stock market.

The Fed’s aggressive rate increases have economists and investors worried that the central bank could go too far in slowing the economy and push it into a recession. The U.S. economy is already slowing down, contracting during the first half the year. The U.S. government will release its third-quarter gross domestic product report on Thursday.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates another three-quarters of a percentage point at its upcoming meeting in November. Markets have been looking for any sign that the central bank is ready to ease up on rate increases.

Also Monday, U.K. government bonds rallied as Treasury chief Rishi Sunak became assured of becoming the prime minster, replacing Liz Truss, who quit last week after her tax-cutting economic package caused turmoil in financial markets.

In other trading, the dollar fell to 148.88 Japanese yen from 148.94 yen. The euro rose to 98.81 cents from 98.75 cents.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil picked up 31 cents to $84.89 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 47 cents to $84.58 per barrel on Monday.

Brent crude, the international pricing standard, rose 28 cents to $84.86 per barrel.

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AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed. Alice Fung in Hong Kong also contributed.