Markets in Asia apart from Shanghai’s were broadly higher Monday, shrugging off the blues on Wall Street after big technology stocks logged their worst week since the COVID crash in 2020.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng led the region, gaining 1.6% to 16489.08. But the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.5% to 3,050.89 after the People’s Bank of China kept its 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates unchanged.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% to 37,986.40, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2% to 15,282.01. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 broadly lost 7.3% this week for their worst performance since March 2020 as some global giants reported discouraging trends. ASML, a Dutch company that’s a major supplier to the semiconductor industry, reported weaker-than-expected orders for the start of 2024, for example.
Fed officials are adamant that they want to see additional proof inflation is heading down toward their 2% target before lowering the Fed’s main interest rate, which is at its highest level since 2001.