Bloomberg News
Asian stock markets were mixed in early trading Tuesday, as investors generally shrugged off the latest round of U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods set to go into effect next week.
After a holiday Monday, trading resumed in Japan and the Nikkei NIK, +1.41% jumped 1%, hitting fresh 7½-month highs. Big insurers Dai-ichi Life 8750, +4.17% and T&D 8795, +4.83% both jumped nearly 3% as 10-year Treasury yields returned to 3%. Meanwhile, 10-year JGB yields were up a half-basis point at 0.11%. But tech names were weaker following the slide in the Nasdaq on Monday, with TDK 6762, +1.11% and Tokyo Electron 8035, -0.31% initially falling about 2% before recovering somewhat. The dollar USDJPY, +0.06% continued to rebound, climbing to ¥111.80, also providing a boost to a number of Japanese stocks.
Chinese stocks gained slightly as trading began, showing scant initial reaction to the U.S. confirming that another round of import tariffs are on the way. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +1.82% , after notching a nearly four-year closing low Monday, was last about flat, as was the smaller cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, +1.68% .
Hong Kong stocks repeated yesterday’s underperformance with the Hang Seng HSI, +0.68% , down 10 of the prior 13 trading days, off 0.8%. Tencent 0700, +0.19% was down a further 1.5%, while Macau casino stocks sank as the enclave gets up and running after Sunday’s typhoon prompted a day-long closure of the facilities. Nomura is predicting that the storm will cut this month’s gross-gaming revenue growth by some 5 percentage points. The investment bank had been predicting mid-teens growth in September for the metric before Mangkhut’s arrival.
South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.26% was nearly flat, as the leaders of North and South Korea kicked off a three-day summit. Samsung 005930, +0.78% rose nearly 1%. Taiwan’s Taiex Y9999, -0.63% fell 0.5% as tech names such as Taiwan Semiconductor 2330, -1.36% and Largan Precision 3008, -9.92% tumbled.Australia’s ASX 200 XJO, -0.38% dipped 0.3% as the energy sector continued its decline. Mining giant BHP Billiton BHP, -0.41% was down almost 1% as it announced it was dropping “Billiton” from its name. New Zealand’s benchmark NZ50GR, +0.48% rose slightly.
Stocks in Southeast Asia lagged, with benchmarks in Singapore STI, -0.28% and Malaysia FBMKLCI, -0.63% down.
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