Stocks in Asia-Pacific Failed to Strengthen Their Positions
Stocks in Asia-Pacific declined on Thursday following two days of declines on Wall Street. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.69% to finish its trading day at 26,888.57. The Topix fell 1.56% to close at 1,892.90. Both of them fell nearly 2% earlier in the session before paring some losses. Shares of Fast Retailing declined 3.36% to 60,180.
Mainland Chinese stocks also suffered losses on Thursday. The Shanghai composite declined 1.42% to close at 3,236.70. The Shenzhen component fell 1.65% to 11,972.02.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 1% in late trade, and the Hang Seng tech index was 2.38% higher. Shares of Bilibili plunged 4.35% and Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares fell 1.67%.
JD.com made an interesting announcement. Xu Lei will replace founder Richard Liu. From now on, Xu Lei is the company’s CEO. However, Richard Liu will remain chairman of the board of directors, while Xu Lei will be an executive director.
In 2021, Richard Liu stepped back from day-to-day operations, Xu Lei was named president of JD. Its shares listed in Hong Kong fell 3.15% on Thursday.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.63% to 7,442.8. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.43% to end its trading day at 2,695.86. The Kosdaq dropped 1.61% to 927.95.
Samsung Electronics posted an estimated 14.1 trillion won ($11.6 billion) profit, Samsung said in its earnings guidance. Samsung’s stocks fell 0.73% to 68,000.
U.S. stocks on Wednesday
U.S. stocks declined for a second day as investors reacted to Fed guidance on tightening monetary policy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 144.67 points, or 0.42% to close at 34,496.51. The S&P 500 declined 0.97% to 4,481.15. The Nasdaq Composite fell another 2.22% to 13,882.82 after declining 2.3% on Tuesday.
Utilities, health care as well as consumer staples continued to climb on Wednesday. Consumer staples such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble gained more than 1% each. Walmart advanced 2.3%.
