Asian stock markets are delivering mixed performances on Tuesday in response to fluctuating cues from Wall Street. Investors are proceeding with caution as they anticipate the release of key US inflation metrics (including producer and consumer price inflation) which could shed light on the potential trajectory of the US Fed's interest rate. Monday saw mostly lowered closing figures for Asian markets.
Tuesday's focus is likely to be the report on US producer price inflation and comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell in a discussion with De Nederlandsche Bank President Klaas Knot.
The Australian stock market has slightly dropped on Tuesday, relinquishing some of the gains from the previous two sessions. Despite this, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 continues to hold above the 7,700 level, with losses primarily seen in gold miners and technology stocks. Major miners Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are seeing slight increases, while Fortescue Metals and BHP Group are experiencing minor losses. Gold miners are mostly suffering declines.
Large oil corporations are also delivering mixed performances with Woodside Energy and Beach Energy experiencing minor gains while Origin Energy and Santos are facing slight losses. Significant losses are seen in tech stocks such as WiseTech Global, Xero and Afterpay owner Block, while Appen experiences a slight gain. Established banks like Westpac and ANZ Banking are seeing minor losses, while National Australia Bank experiences a slight gain. As for the Aussie dollar, it is currently valued at $0.660.
The Japanese stock market, on the other hand, has seen a slight increase in their gains, the Nikkei 225 inching towards the 38,200 level. The increases were seen majorly in heavyweight companies and exporters. Among the prime gainers were companies like Furukawa Electric, Obayashi, Toppan Holdings, Mercari, Suzuki Motor, Yamaha Motor, while companies like Mitsubishi, Tosoh, Daiwa Securities, Nissan Chemical, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Fujikura faced significant losses.
The Bank of Japan reported a 0.3 percent monthly increase in producer prices in April. Annually, producer prices saw a rise of 0.9 percent while export prices were up 0.4 percent monthly and 1.3 percent yearly. Meanwhile, import prices fell by 0.1 percent monthly and 4.3 percent yearly. The U.S. dollar is currently trading in the lower 156 yen-range on Tuesday.In other parts of Asia, the markets in New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore have all slightly decreased by between 0.1% and 0.3%. On the other hand, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan have seen a slight increase of between 0.1% and 0.2%.
On Wall Street, Monday's trading session was relatively flat, following last week's strong upward trend. The major stock market averages started the day with growth but spent the rest of the day showing unstable behaviour, constantly crossing the breakeven point.
The day ended with the major averages showing slight changes. Although the Nasdaq grew by 47.37 points or 0.3% to 16,388.24, the S&P 500 declined slightly by 1.26 points or less than 0.1% to 5221.42. The Dow decreased by 81.33 points or 0.2% to 39,431.51.
In the meantime, major European markets saw a modest decrease in their daily performance. The French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.1%, while both the German DAX Index and the UK's FTSE 100 Index also declined by 0.2%.
Crude oil prices saw an increase on Monday. This was driven by optimistic expectations for demand following the OPEC's decision to maintain the reduction of supply into the second half of the year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June closed with a $0.86 increase at $79.12 per barrel.
