Asian shares and U.S. futures slipped Thursday after U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street.
Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel.
China moved to reverse some of its “non-tariff” measures against the U.S. as agreed with Washington in their temporary trade war cease-fire and most markets traded in a narrow range.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.1%, however, to 37,705.74. Computer chip-related stocks were among the biggest decliners, with Disco Corp. falling 2.6% and Advantest down 1.8%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the outlier, picking up 0.2% to 23,691.67. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,393.29, while Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.2%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,278.30. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.1% lower.
On Wednesday, a choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended with a mixed finish as gains by several big technology stocks helped temper losses.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 5,892.58 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% to 42,051.06. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7% to 19,146.81.
Super Micro Computer surged 15.7% after signing a partnership agreement with Saudi Arabian data center company DataVolt. Advanced Micro Devices gained 4.7% after announcing a $6 billion stock buyback program.
Nvidia rose 4.2% and Google parent Alphabet added 3.7%.
Other big gainers included eToro Group, a retail trading platform for stocks and cryptocurrency. It rose 28.8% in its first day of trading.
The U.S. will release its April report for inflation at the wholesale level on Thursday, and economists expect an easing of price pressures.
An update for retail sales is expected to reflect a sharp drop to 0.2% in April from 1.4% the previous month.
Retail giant Walmart will also report its latest financial results on Thursday and its financial forecasts will be closely watched.
The stock market has been relatively steady since it surged Monday after the U.S. and China announced a . The market gained more ground on Tuesday after the government reported that inflation in April. More updates on inflation and retail sales are expected on Thursday.
Trump has delayed a large swath of his most severe tariffs against America’s trading partners, but some import taxes remain in place. Uncertainty over the path ahead continues to hang over businesses and consumers. The on-again-off-again nature of Trump’s trade policy has left companies reluctant to make plans about investment and hiring and consumers nervous about spending.
Businesses continue to trim or withdraw their financial forecasts as they face unpredictable trade policy and cautious consumers.
fell 6.4% after the retailer withdrew its financial outlook for the year citing “macro uncertainty.” General Motors, UPS, Kraft Heinz and JetBlue are among the many companies representing a wide range of industries that have and a weakening economy.
More than 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings for their latest quarter. The majority of companies have reported better-than-expected earnings, but forecasts for earnings growth during the current quarter have been broadly cut in half for companies in the index.
The economy has already showed signs of slowing. It shrank 0.3% during the first quarter amid a surge of imports as businesses and consumers tried to stock up amid tariffs and policy uncertainty.
Data on consumer prices released Tuesday showed that tariffs haven’t had much impact yet. But that could change as the impact of current tariffs make their way through supply chains and delayed tariffs potentially go into effect. Inflation has cooled to just above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%, but the threat of higher prices on goods because of import taxes has heightened worries about inflation heating up.
In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost $1.25 to $61.90 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.25 to $64.84 per barrel.
The dollar slipped to 146.26 Japanese yen from 146.75 yen. The euro rose to $1.1196 from $1.1174.
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AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed.
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