HONG KONG — Markets in Europe and Asia were mostly higher on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street gains, while the Japanese yen was trading near a 40-year low against the U.S. dollar.
U.S. futures were little changed.
In Germany, the DAX climbed 0.8 per cent to 24,810.48 while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1 per cent higher to 8,374.80. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.4 per cent to 10,524.33.
Shares in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan rebounded from earlier losses spurred by selling of technology companies due to concerns over the sustainability of the boom in artificial intelligence.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.9 per cent to 70,062.32. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron jumped 3.3 per cent. SoftBank Group, an investment holding company that invests in OpenAI, was up 1.2 per cent.
South Korea’s Kospi index, which has performed strongly during the global AI frenzy due to growing demand for memory chips from major chipmakers like SK Hynix, gained 1 per cent to 8,476.48.
Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 3.4 per cent and those of SK Hynix rose 0.8 per cent after the two companies and the government jointly announced plans Monday for over US$500 billion of investments in the country’s chipmaking and AI.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6 per cent to 22,881.02 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.5 per cent to 4,094.40. Taiwan’s Taiex picked up 2.5 per cent.
China reported its factory activity slightly picked up pace in June, mainly due to exports and demand generated by expanding use of AI. The survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics said the manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, expanded to 50.3 in June from 50 in May. That’s better than had been expected.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.5 per cent to 8,778.70, while India’s Sensex slipped 0.3 per cent.
The dollar rose to nearly 162.42 yen early Tuesday in Tokyo, its highest level since late 1986, and was trading at 162.40 yen by late afternoon.
The yen’s prolonged slump against the dollar, largely due to a growing gap between interest rates in the U.S. and Japan, has spurred speculation that Tokyo might intervene to prop up the currency. However, Japan’s finance minister said only that the government was ready to “respond appropriately whenever necessary.”
Earlier interventions appeared only to slow the dollar’s rise against the yen.
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates higher for longer due to inflationary pressures partly driven by higher oil and gas prices resulting from the Iran war. Japan’s central bank is moving very gradually to raise interest rates from near zero, having increased its key rate to 1 per cent last month, its highest level in more than 30 years.
The dollar to yen rate “has spiked above 162 as everyone is holding their breath to see when Japanese officials intervene,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary. “Intervening now would change nothing about the underlying market direction, but would cost dearly. Unless we see an aggressive sell-off in the yen, the Japanese authorities seem willing to remain on the sidelines.”
The euro fell to $1.1409 from $1.1422.
U.S. futures edged higher.
On Monday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 added 1.2 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.1 per cent.
High tech companies led gains as Intel gained 2.7 per cent and Micron Technology climbed 1.1 per cent. Nvidia rose 1.3 per cent and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, was 3.4 per cent higher.
Oil prices fell modestly early Tuesday as traders monitored developments in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on ending their four-month war.
Crude prices have stabilized following attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend after the United States and Iran separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the United States “at any level.”
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.7 per cent to $73.40 a barrel. It was trading near $72 per barrel before the war began to disrupt transport of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
Benchmark U.S. crude declined 0.8 per cent to $70.22 a barrel.
The hope is that an end to the war with Iran will restore full access to the strait, allowing tankers to exit the Persian Gulf and deliver crude to customers worldwide. That would help lower the price of oil, whose jumps because of the war have sent a punishing wave of inflation around the world.
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Chan Ho-him and Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press
Kurtenbach contributed from Bangkok.
