Asian stocks higher as investors watch corporate earnings
Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street higher as investors wait for more U.S. corporate results to see how companies are coping with supply disruptions and the past quarter’s surge in coronavirus infections
BEIJING — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher as investors waited for U.S. corporate results Tuesday to see how companies are coping with supply disruptions and the past quarter’s surge in coronavirus infections.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.3%, propelled by tech and consumer stocks.
”It was a good day to be a mega-cap tech stock,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7% to 3,593.23 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advanced 0.6% to 29,198.90. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.2% to 25,708.52.
The Kospi in Seoul was 0.6% higher at 3,027.15 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.1% to 7,386.60.
India’s Sensex opened 0.2% higher at 61,894.25. New Zealand and Singapore advanced while Bangkok and Jakarta declined.
On Wall Street, health care giant Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines and streaming entertainment service Netflix were due to report earnings Tuesday. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines follow Thursday.
Companies are warning that supply disruptions stemming from the pandemic are hampering production and could hurt them financially.
Investors worry that is fueling inflation and might slow an economic recovery.
“The inflation pressures we expected are here — and are persistent,” researchers at the BlackRock Investment Institute said in a report.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 4,486.46. The index gained 1.8% last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.15 points, or 0.1%, to 35,258.61. The Nasdaq rose 124.47, or 0.8%, 15,021.81.
Chipmaker Nvidia rose 1.6% and Target rose 3.2%.
Those gains were tempered by losses for health care and other companies. Medical device vendor Medtronic fell 5.5%.
The S&P 500 is within roughly 1.1% of its Sept. 2 all-time high.
Also Tuesday, the Commerce Department was due to report on September housing starts.
On Monday, Toyota Motor Co. rose 1.3% after announcing plans to build a $1.3 billion factory in the United States to make batteries for electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles. TV station owner Sinclair Broadcasting fell 2.9% after reporting a data breach.
Also Monday, Federal Reserve on Monday reported an unexpectedly big 1.3% drop in U.S. industrial production. Nearly half of that was blamed on lingering effects of Hurricane Ida.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained 18 cents to $81.87 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 10 cents to $84.43 per barrel in London.
The dollar fell to 114.19 yen from Monday’s 114.26 yen. The euro rose to $1.1649 from $1.1610.
