TOKYO — Asian shares traded mixed Wednesday after U.S. stocks edged down from record highs and as market focus turned to expectations for the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut of the year.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.2% in morning trading to 44,995.79. The Finance Ministry reported Japan’s exports to the U.S. dropped 13.8% in August compared to the same month the previous year, marking the fifth straight month of declines, as auto exports declined amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
U.S. tariffs on Japanese automobiles and auto parts dropped from 27.5%, the amount Trump initially levied, to 15% this week, still higher than the original 2.5%. Wednesday’s data was for the month of August, when the tariffs were higher. Japan’s overall exports to the world for the month was little changed, slipping 0.1%, as exports grew to Europe and the Middle East.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7% to 8,812.80. South Korea’s Kospi dropped nearly 1.0% to 3,415.71. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged nearly 0.9% to 26,662.13, while the Shanghai Composite shed less than 0.1% to 3,858.74.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.1% from its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 125 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1% from its own record set the day before.
Stocks have run to records on expectations that the Fed will announce the first of a series of cuts to rates on Wednesday in hopes of giving the economy a boost. The job market has slowed so much that traders believe Fed officials now see it as the bigger danger for the economy than the threat of higher inflation because of Trump’s tariffs.
The Fed has been holding off on cuts to rates because inflation has remained above its 2% target, and lower interest rates could give it more fuel.
People pass the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 5, 2024, in New York. Credit: AP/Peter Morgan
A report on Tuesday said shoppers increased their spending at U.S. retailers by more last month than economists expected. A chunk of that could be due to shoppers having to pay higher prices for the same amount of stuff. But it could also indicate solid spending by U.S. households could continue to keep the economy out of a recession.
The data did little to change traders’ expectations for a cut to interest rates on Wednesday, followed by more through the end of the year and into 2026.
Such high expectations have sent stocks to records, but they can also create disappointment if unfulfilled. For now, global fund managers are tilting their portfolios toward stocks at the highest level in seven months, according to the latest survey by Bank of America. That’s even though a record 58% of them are also saying that stocks look too expensive at the moment.
On Wall Street, New York Times Co. fell 1.6% after Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and four of its journalists on Monday. The lawsuit points to several articles and a book written by Times journalists and published in the lead up to the 2024 election as “part of a decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump.”
Oracle rose 1.5% on speculation that it could be part of a deal that would keep TikTok operating in the United States.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 8.52 points to 6,606.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 125.55 to 45,757.90, and the Nasdaq composite sank 14.79 to 22,333.96.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.03% from 4.05% late Monday.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 8 cents to $64.44 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9 cents to $68.38 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 146.69 Japanese yen from 146.40 yen. The euro cost $1.1852, down from $1.1867.
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