BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in thin Asian trading on Monday after U.S. stocks edged back from their all-time high.
Oil prices fell and U.S. futures sank, while Chinese shares shed some of their early gains after a survey of manufacturers showed export orders dropping to a five-month low.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in January from 50.1 in December, slipping into contractionary territory on a scale where 50 and above indicates expansion.
Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said the slowdown might be temporary given increased government spending.
“But the disappointing PMI data underscores the difficulty policymakers face in achieving a sustained recovery in growth,” Huang wrote in a commentary.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 0.9% at 20,249.64, while the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.1%, at 3,256.91.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.6% to 39,699.76, extending losses after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.25%, its highest level since 2008.
The U.S. dollar was steady against the Japanese yen, at 155.73 yen, up from 155.72. The euro slipped to $1.0471 from $1.0483.
In Bangkok, the SET fell 0.2%.
Markets were closed in many other Asian markets due to lunar new year holidays.
On Friday, U.S. stocks pulled back from their all-time high to close out a second straight winning week.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% a day after setting a record, closing at 6,101.24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.3% to 44,424.25, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.5% to 19,954.30.
Trading was quiet, aided by relative steadiness in the bond market, which has been driving much of the action on Wall Street lately. When worries about inflation and the U.S. government’s swelling debt have been on the rise, Treasury yields have climbed and helped knock down stock prices. When concerns ebb, such as after last week’s encouraging update on inflation, yields have eased and helped stocks rise.
A mostly encouraging start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has also helped prop up the stock market. Even if higher Treasury yields are pushing downward on their stock prices, companies can make up for it by delivering bigger profits.
Texas Instruments fell 7.5% despite reporting profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.
In a sign of how much pressure is on companies to keep growing, analysts focused on discouraging signals of how much profit the company is likely to make from each $1 of revenue during the first three months of 2025. That helped drag down stocks across the semiconductor industry.
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