Stock market today: Asian stocks are mixed after Wall Street posted its worst loss in four months

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Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday after Wall Street posted its worst loss since September as the Federal Reserve suggested interest rate cuts are not imminent.

US futures rose while oil prices fell.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose but gave back much of its early gains. It rose 0.5% to 15,566.21, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6% to 2,770.74.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 0.8% to 36,011.46 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 1.8% to 2,542.46.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1.2% to 7,588.20.

The SET in Bangkok rose 0.3% while the Sensex in India lost 0.2%.

On Wednesday, stocks of major technology companies, burned by the downside of high expectations, triggered a sharp decline.

The S&P 500 fell 1.6% to 4,845.65 on its worst day since September.

The decline in Big Tech stocks pushed the Nasdaq composite to a market-leading loss of 2.2%. It closed at 15,164.01.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which relies less on technology, fell a more modest 0.8% to 38,150.30.

Alphabet was one of the market's heaviest weights, falling 7.5% despite reporting higher earnings and revenue than analysts expected for its latest quarter. Beneath the surface, analysts pointed to some troubling trends in how much Google's parent company makes from advertising.

Microsoft fell 2.7% despite posting higher-than-expected profits and sales. One analyst, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, even called its quarterly report “a masterpiece that should be hung in the Louvre.”

Tesla, another member of the group of technology stocks nicknamed the “Magnificent Seven,” fell 2.2%. A Delaware judge ruled a day earlier that its CEO, Elon Musk, is not entitled to the groundbreaking compensation package he was previously awarded.

Three more Big Tech stocks will report results on Thursday: Amazon, Apple and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

The Fed left its key interest rate unchanged on Wednesday and made clear that it “does not expect it will be appropriate” to cut rates “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation will move sustainably toward its target of $2.” % moved towards”.

“We are not declaring victory at all,” said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

The Fed is unlikely to reach this level of certainty by its next meeting in March.

“That's probably not the most likely case,” he said, sending shares sliding late in trading.

Powell also said Fed officials simply need to see more months of data confirming that inflation is falling sustainably. “We have confidence,” he said. “It has increased, but we want to gain more trust.”

Treasury yields in the bond market fluctuated up and down after the Fed's announcement. They had previously fallen after some economic reports were weaker than expected.

Growth in wages and benefits for U.S. workers in the final three months of 2023 was slower than economists expected, a report said. While all workers would like bigger raises, the cooler-than-expected data could further calm one of the Fed's big fears: that too high wage increases would trigger a vicious cycle that ultimately keeps inflation high.

A separate report from the ADP Research Institute also suggested that hiring by non-government employers in January was weaker than economists expected. The Fed and Wall Street are hoping the labor market will cool just the right amount, enough to keep inflation under control but not so much that it triggers a recession. A more comprehensive jobs report from the US government will arrive on Friday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 3.95% early Thursday, compared with 3.92% late Wednesday. It was at 4.04% late Tuesday. In October it was over 5% and at its highest level since 2007.

In further trading on Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil prices fell 7 cents to $75.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 11 cents to $80.44 a barrel.

The US dollar fell to 146.72 Japanese yen from 146.92 yen. The euro fell from $1.0817 to $1.0790.