TOKYO (AP) โ Asian stocks mostly rose on Wednesday, tracking gains on Wall Street, although Tokyo's benchmark index fell.
US oil prices and futures advanced.
Stocks rose in Shanghai and the smaller Shenzhen market after Chinese regulators issued another set of policies to improve the market, while Hong Kong gave up early gains.
Bullish momentum following Tuesday's announcement that a state investment fund was stepping up purchases of exchange-traded funds appeared to have faded. A report that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would meet officials to discuss markets remained unconfirmed, with no information on such a meeting.
Those developments had sent Chinese stocks, including those in Hong Kong, sharply higher on Tuesday. At midday on Wednesday, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.1% at 16,122.40, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.9% at 2,814.89.
Investors were selling technology and property stocks that had risen during the brief rally in markets.
However, mostly small-cap stocks traded on the Shenzhen market in southern China rose 2.3%, and the CSI 1000, an index that tracks "snowball derivatives" highly volatile, rose 6.1%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.7% to 35,889.14 despite gains from companies that have reported strong financial results, including Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp., which rose 3.9%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8% in early trading to 7,642.50. South Korea's Kospi rose 1.7% to 2,620.71.
Wall Street rose on a quiet Tuesday as the bond market calmed down after some wild swings.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 4,954.23, almost returning to its all-time high set late last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% to 38,521.36 and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1% to 15,609.00.
Stocks have been under some pressure recently as signs continue to come in that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates as soon as traders expected. He The economy has remained remarkably strong., even though the Federal Reserve has raised rates to slow them down and reduce inflation. This has pushed some forecasts for the first rate cut since March into the summer.
If lower short-term interest rates don't boost stock prices, the hope is that strong corporate earnings will.
GE Healthcare Technologies was the day's best performer on the S&P 500, jumping 11.6% after reporting healthier fourth-quarter earnings and revenue than analysts expected.
Palantir Technologies, one of the companies that has been in a frenzy on Wall Street over artificial intelligence technology, soared 30.8% after its results for the latest quarter roughly matched analysts' expectations.
Music and podcast streaming platform Spotify rose 3.9% after reporting stronger-than-expected growth in its subscriber base, even as revenue missed analyst targets.
Those gains helped offset an 11.5% drop for FMC, whose products help protect crops. The company's earnings and revenue fell short of analyst projections, in part due to drought conditions in Brazil.
With earnings season roughly halfway over for the big companies in the S&P 500 index, there are still plenty of heavyweights set to report this week, including CVS Health, The Walt Disney Co. and PepsiCo.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield eased after rising in recent days. It fell to 4.09% from 4.17% late Monday.
While a delay in rate cuts hurts the stock market, particularly after very high expectations of cuts helped fuel a long rally, strong economic data also carries an upside for investors. They should mean greater profits for companies.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained 19 cents to $73.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 13 cents to $78.72.
In currency trading, the US dollar fell to 147.91 Japanese yen from 147.95 yen. The euro cost $1.0760, down from $1.0755.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.
