Asian shares shoot higher as US stocks inch toward their records
Shares advanced Wednesday in Asia after U S stocks drifted closer to their records while U S futures edged lower South Korea s Kospi led gains in the region jumping to after the liberal opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung was elected president Lee s win caps months of political turmoil triggered by the stunning but brief imposition of martial law by the now-ousted conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol Top priorities will include ruling body spending and deal negotiations with the United States Regardless of his political roots boosting progress will be a key challenge Even before President Trump s tariffs hit exports the business sector contracted by quarter on quarter seasonally adjusted in the first three months of the year The figures highlighted fragile business activity and private consumption Min Joo Kang of ING Economics commented in a statement Tokyo s Nikkei index surged on gains for tool and pharmaceutical companies Toyota Motor Corp s shares rose after it reported it was buying Toyota Industries Corp a maker of auto parts and lift trucks for billion and taking it private Toyota Industries shares tumbled Chinese shares were modestly higher The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added to while the Shanghai Composite index gained to Taiwan s Taiex climbed Investors were watching for updates on President Donald Trump s tariffs including the imposition of tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum due to take effect Wednesday With industries lobbying for him to expand that protection to products made from those materials analysts say prices of plenty of basic items will likely rise On Tuesday the S P rose and was less than away from its all-time high set earlier this year at The Dow Jones Industrial Average added to The Nasdaq composite rose to Dollar General jumped for one of the area s bigger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the start of the year than analysts expected Plenty of companies have cut or withdrawn their financial forecasts for the upcoming year because of the uncertainty caused by Trump s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Growth revealed on Tuesday that it s forecasting upsurge for the U S commercial sector this year down from last year A record on Tuesday morning presented U S employers were advertising more job openings at the end of April than economists expected the latest signal that the labor area remains resilient It set the stage for a more critical assessment coming on Friday which will show how much hiring and firing U S employers did in May On the business front hopes are still high on Wall Street that Trump will reach transaction deals with other countries that will ultimately lower tariffs particularly with the world s second-largest commercial sector The U S side mentioned President Donald Trump was expecting to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson noted Tuesday that they had no information on that Tech stocks helped lead the way again as Nvidia rose and Broadcom climbed The chip companies have recovered their sharp losses from earlier this year borne amid worries their stock prices had shot too high Treasury yields held relatively steady following the encouraging record on the U S job field It s a cooldown from a sharp rise for yields over the last two months Yields had been climbing in part on worries about how the U S cabinet may be set to add trillions of dollars to its debt through tax cuts Higher Treasury yields make it more expensive for U S households and businesses to borrow money and can discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments In other dealings early Wednesday U S benchmark crude oil lost cents to per barrel Brent crude the international standard fell cents to per barrel The U S dollar fell to Japanese yen from yen The euro rose to from AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed Source
