TOKYO: Asian stocks were broadly mixed in volatile trading on Tuesday as investors girded for three days of tech megacap earnings reports on Wall Street, kicking off with Google parent Alphabet later in the day.
The U.S. election has entered its final stretch, with opinion polls still too close to call a winner, despite some betting sites and financial markets leaning toward a win for Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 0.5% higher, paring earlier gains of as much as 1.6%. Mainland Chinese blue chips slipped 0.75%, reversing an early rise of 0.68%. Chinese investors are focused on a top leadership meeting next week for more details of Beijing's stimulus measures."The conviction to take these markets higher, we just don't have that," said Tony Sycamore, a markets analyst at IG."We're in a very, very tricky period here.
Recent robust U.S. economic data, including evidence of a resilient job market, have seen bets pared back for easing this year by the Federal Reserve, boosting the dollar. "We expect the narratives of a Trump win ... and U.S. economic outperformance to continue to dominate financial markets, in turn supporting U.S. interest rates and the USD," said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.