Asian stock markets exhibited a mixed performance on Tuesday, reflecting the ambivalence seen on Wall Street the previous night. Investors were cautious ahead of key U.S. inflation data expected later in the week, which could indicate a deceleration in annual price growth and thereby influence interest rate forecasts. Most Asian markets had ended Monday on a lower note.
Market participants are also anticipating U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before Congress later this week for further guidance.
The Australian stock market, bouncing back from losses over the past two sessions, traded notably higher on Tuesday, influenced by Wall Street’s mixed signals. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 surpassed the 7,800 mark, buoyed by gains in sectors such as iron ore mining, energy, and finance.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose by 54.30 points or 0.70% to 7,817.50, reaching a high of 7,829.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index increased by 51.40 points or 0.64% to 8,063.60. Australian stocks had seen significant declines on Monday.
Among major miners, BHP Group added nearly 1%, Mineral Resources advanced almost 2%, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals each gained over 1%.
Oil stocks mostly rose, with Woodside Energy and Origin Energy both edging up 0.5%, and Santos nearly 1%. Beach Energy remained flat.
Tech stocks performed well: Appen climbed over 1%, WiseTech Global and Zip added almost 1% each, but Block, the owner of Afterpay, declined more than 1%. Xero edged down 0.2%. Gold miners were mixed; Gold Road Resources edged down 0.5%, while Resolute Mining fell more than 2%. Proportionate gains were observed in Northern Star Resources, Newmont, and Evolution Mining, which edged up between 0.1% and 0.4% each.
Among Australia's big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking each gained almost 1%, Westpac added over 1%, and National Australia Bank edged up 0.5%.
In the forex market, the Aussie dollar traded at $0.674 on Tuesday.
The Japanese stock market also recovered losses from the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 advancing over 600 points, surpassing the 41,300 mark. This was driven by gains in heavyweight and tech stocks, despite weaknesses in automakers and financial sectors.
The Nikkei 225 Index concluded the morning session at 41,386.80, up 606.10 points or 1.49%, after reaching a high of 39,929.67 earlier. Japanese shares had a modest decline on Monday.
Among top performers, SoftBank Group rose over 1%, and Fast Retailing, operator of Uniqlo, advanced nearly 2%. Honda fell 1.5% and Toyota dropped more than 1%.
In the technology sector, Advantest and Screen Holdings each rose more than 2%, while Tokyo Electron gained almost 3%.
The banking sector saw losses: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial each fell by over 1%, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial declined almost 1%.
Major exporters showed mixed results, with Panasonic losing over 1% and Mitsubishi Electric falling almost 1%, while Sony gained nearly 3% and Canon added almost 1%.
Significant gains were seen in Fujikura, which soared over 8%, Resonac Holdings surged nearly 6%, Hitachi rose almost 4%, and Furukawa Electric added over 3%. There were no other notable losers.
Economic data from Japan indicated that the M2 money stock increased by 1.5% year-on-year in June, totalling 1,257.5 trillion yen. This was below the expected 2.0% gain and down from 1.9% in May. The M3 money stock rose by 1.0% annually to 1,610.0 trillion yen, easing from 1.3% the previous month. The L money stock increased by 3.0% annually to 2,178.5 trillion yen, down from 3.3% in the previous month. For Q2 2024, M2 grew by 1.8% annually, M3 by 1.3%, and L by 3.0%.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the higher 160 yen range on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia saw gains of between 0.1% and 0.4%, while those in New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan experienced declines of between 0.1% and 0.7%.On Wall Street, stocks displayed a mixed performance on Monday, exhibiting some sluggishness after a promising start. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached record highs, while the Dow closed in negative territory. Earlier in the session, optimism regarding interest rates propelled stocks.
The Dow slipped by 31.08 points, or 0.08%, to settle at 39,344.79. The S&P 500 rose by 5.66 points, or 0.1%, to close at 5,572.85, and the Nasdaq advanced by 50.98 points, or 0.28%, to finish at 18,403.74.
In Europe, the major markets trended downward. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 decreased by 0.13%, France's CAC 40 declined by 0.63%, and Germany's DAX marginally fell by 0.02%.
Crude oil prices dropped on Monday following the shutdown of several oil export facilities near Houston due to Hurricane Beryl. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August declined by $0.83, or 1%, to settle at $82.33 per barrel.
