By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer
BANGKOK (AP) โ Asian stocks were mixed on Wednesday after Japan reported its exports rose nearly 10% in December, although Tokyo stocks fell.
US oil and futures prices rose.
Chinese stocks resumed their rise after China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Wang Jiangjun called for better protections for investors and instilled confidence in the potential for gains in markets, which have faltered in recent months.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2% to 15,569.39, helped by gains from technology companies such as e-commerce giant Alibaba, which rose 3.8%.
The Shanghai Composite Index recovered from early losses, rising 1.8% to 2,820.77.
Japan's exports grew nearly 3% in 2023, while imports fell 7%, leaving a trade deficit of 9.2 trillion yen, preliminary customs data showed, a sharp drop from the 20-year deficit. .3 trillion yen reported last year.
But economists predict that the revival of export growth will be short-lived.
"Looking ahead, we expect export growth to slow this year as pent-up foreign demand for Japanese products eases," Capital Economics' Gabriel Ng said in a commentary.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8% to 36,226.48, also hit by renewed speculation that the Bank of Japan is nearing a change in its long-loose monetary policies, which have flooded markets with abundant cash.
In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.4% to 2,469.69.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 7,519.20.
India's Sensex lost 0.1%, while the Bangkok SET gained 0.2%.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 hit another record high as the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies accelerated.
The index rose 0.3% to 4,864.60. The Nasdaq Composite also rose, up 0.4% to 15,425.94. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, a day after surpassing 38,000 points for the first time. It ended at 37,905.45.
Procter & Gamble rose 4.1% after posting stronger last-quarter profits than analysts expected.
united airlines rose 5.3% after it also reported stronger earnings for the final three months of 2023 than analysts expected. It earned more revenue from customers on both basic and premium economy seats, although it warned it could lose money in the first three months of this year due to the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.
Earnings season is underway, and more than a dozen S&P 500 companies reported their latest quarterly results Tuesday morning. More than 50 are scheduled to follow up later this week, including Tesla and Intel.
Among Tuesday's headlines was Verizon Communications, which rose 6.7% after beating analysts' earnings estimates. General Electric also beat expectations, but its shares fell 1% after it gave a profit forecast for this quarter that missed analysts' estimates. Housebuilder DR Horton sank 9.2% after reporting weaker-than-expected profits.
Analysts have forecast that S&P 500 companies will deliver weaker overall earnings per share than a year ago, which would be the fourth such decline in the last five quarters, according to FactSet. But stocks have still rallied to record highs in anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times this year.
Such cuts can boost investment prices while easing pressure on the economy and financial system.
Treasury yields have already declined sharply since the fall on expectations of upcoming rate cuts, although critics are warning traders. may have gone too far again when predicting how many cuts will come and how soon the Fed will start.
In other trading on Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 18 cents to $74.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday it lost 39 cents.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 18 cents to $79.73 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 147.76 Japanese yen from 148.38 yen. The euro rose to $1.0870 from $1.0855.
