MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday following a retreat on Wall Street, while crude prices jumped more than $2 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sanctions on Russian oil giants.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil are intended to drive Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and help end Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, European Union leaders were holding a summit Thursday, aiming to greenlight still more sanctions against Russia and press ahead with plans to use Moscow’s assets that are frozen in Europe to fund Ukraine’s war effort and economy for at least the next two years.
U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $2.02 to $60.52 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $2.09 to $64.68 per barrel.
Chinese shares rose from losses earlier in the day as leaders in Beijing were wrapping up an important Communist Party meeting that will set the agenda for the coming five years.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.6% to 25,824.32 while the Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.1% to 3,917.89 as reports indicated Washington may tighten restrictions on exports to China of products made using U.S. software.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed nearly 1.4% to 48,939.69 on reports that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is preparing a stimulus package larger than last year’s of nearly 14 trillion yen (about $92 billion). SoftBank Group led losers, with shares shedding more than 4% after it unveiled plans to finance its investments in artificial intelligence by issuing U.S. dollar and euro dominated bonds.
Takaichi has also said she favors keeping interest rates near their current low level of close to zero, and that has caused the Japanese yen to weaken against the dollar. The dollar rose to 152.52 Japanese yen Thursday, up from 151.94 yen.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% to 3,845.56, with investors remaining cautious while trade negotiations with the U.S. made limited progress.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added less than 0.1% to 9,032.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.4%, while India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.9%.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 sank 0.5% to 6,699.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 46,590.41, from its record set the day before. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.9% to 22,740.40.
Netflix helped drag the market lower after delivering a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The pressure is on the video streamer and on companies broadly to deliver solid growth in profits. That would counter criticism that their stock prices shot too high following a 35% romp for the S&P 500 from a low in April.
Capital One Financial rose 1.5%, and Western Alliance Bancorp climbed 3.2% following their own profit updates that beat analysts’ expectations. The report from Western Alliance was particularly welcome after it helped shake confidence in the industry last week. It’s one of several banks that had warned of potentially bad loans on its books, possibly because of fraud.
Beyond Meat, meanwhile, swung sharply through a manic Wednesday. After surging as much as 112% in the morning, its stock erased all of that to finish with a drop of 1.1%. It’s still up 454.5% for the week so far in the midst of its meme-stock run.
The maker of plant-based meat alternatives was the biggest holding in the Roundhill Meme Stock exchange-traded fund, as of Tuesday. The ETF holds stocks where investors have piled in because they’re hoping to catch a wave of momentum, almost regardless of how or even what the businesses themselves are doing.
In other dealings early Thursday, the price of gold recovered about 1.6% to $4,131.80 after sliding for two days from its record high.
The euro slipped to $1.1596 from $1.1610.
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