TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares slid Wednesday after a decline overnight on Wall Street and disappointing China growth data, while Tokyo’s main benchmark momentarily hit another 30-year high.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225
NIY00,
reached a session high of 36,239.22, but closed 0.4% lower at 35,477.75. The Nikkei has been hitting new 34-year highs, or the best since February 1990 during the so-called financial bubble. Buying focused on semiconductor-related shares, and a cheap yen helped boost exporter issues.
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HK:HSCI
tumbled 3.7% to 15,276.90, with losses building after data showed China hitting its economic growth target of 5.2% for 2023, surpassing government expectations, but short of the 5.3% some analysts expected. The Shanghai Composite
CN:SHCOMP
shed 2.1% to 2,833.62.
Read on: China hit its economic-growth target without ‘massive stimulus,’ boasts Premier Li Qiang
The share prices of U.S.-listed Chinese companies including Yum China
YUMC,
and Alibaba
BABA,
fell in premarket trade.
Investors were keeping their eyes on upcoming earnings reports, as well as potential moves by the world’s central banks, to gauge their next moves.
Wall Street slipped in a lackluster return to trading following a three-day holiday weekend.
See: What’s next for stocks as ‘tired’ market stalls in 2024 ahead of closely watched retail sales
The S&P 500
SPX
fell 17.85 points, or 0.4%, to 4,765.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
dropped 231.86, or 0.6%, to 37,361.12, and the Nasdaq
COMP
sank 28.41, or 0.2%, to 14,944.35.
Easier rates and yields relax the pressure on the economy and financial system, while also boosting prices for investments. And for the past six months, interest rates have been the main force moving the stock market, according to Michael Wilson, strategist at Morgan Stanley.
He sees that dynamic continuing in the near term, with the “bond market still in charge.”
For now, traders are penciling in many more cuts to rates through 2024 than the Fed itself has indicated. That raises the potential for big market swings around each speech by a Fed official or economic report.
Yields rose in the bond market after Fed governor Christopher Waller said in a speech that “policy is set properly” on interest rates. Following the speech, traders pushed some bets for the Fed’s first cut to rates to happen in May instead of March.
MarketWatch contributed to this report
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