Asian stocks gained on Monday in morning session as the yen weakened after a strong U.S. jobs report, sending Japanese exporters higher.
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Drug company and consumer-focused stocks weighed on the market, while energy companies surged, getting a lift from a pickup in crude oil prices.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped two points to 18,541 as of 10:08 a.m.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index slipped 0.1 per cent. It was up 0.01 percent at 0.7613.
“It’s a little bit of profit-taking”, he said. “We’re coming off a good employment number and we know the consumer’s been strong”.
DASHED EXPECTATIONS: Allergan PLC slid 2.8 percent after the Botox-maker’s second-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts. The stock lost $5.54 to $248.31. Shares of Toyota traded up 1.7 percent, Nissan was higher by 1.6 percent and Mazda Motor gained 3.71 percent. The deal underscores how serious Wal-Mart is about challenging online leader Amazon. Shares in Wal-Mart shed 42 cents to $73.34.
Shares in Bristol-Myers Squibb were hammered after plunging on Friday following news that the drugmaker’s cancer treatment Opdivo failed in a study aimed at extending its usage for lung cancer patients. The stock added $2.42 to $24.87.
PUMPED: Several oil and natural gas companies were moving higher.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2 percent to 138.35 as of 9:02 a.m.in Tokyo after closing Tuesday at the highest since August 11. Chesapeake Energy added 19 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $5.08.
On the economic front, data released by the German Federal Statistical Office showed that German exports rose a calendar and seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent month-over-month in June, reversing the 1.8 percent drop in May.
China’s producer-price index fell 1.7 percent in July from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said Tuesday, the smallest decline in nearly two years, while passenger-vehicle sales accelerated the most in 17 months.
Futures on the FTSE China A50 Index rose 0.2 percent in most recent trading, while those on the Hang Seng Index climbed 0.5 percent. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.3 per cent, pulled down by a stronger yen.
In Taiwan, the Taiwan Weighted rose 0.05% to touch a new 52-week high.
In South Korea the Kospi ended 0.65% higher as it added 13.18 points to reach 2,031.12.
Oil prices slipped after a surprise United States crude stockpile build rekindled worries about a persistent global glut.
Wall Street eked out gains following a strong session for European stock markets on Tuesday, with Germany’s DAX index jumping 2.5 per cent to its highest of 2016.
The 10-year United Kingdom gilts yield hit a fresh record low of 0.563 percent GB10YT=RR after the BoE fell 52 million pounds ($68 million) short of its target to buy more than 1 billion pounds of long-dated United Kingdom government debt, the first time it failed to find enough sellers since it started its quantitative easing program in 2009.
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Low interest rates and low yields world-wide have sent global investors into Hong Kong property stocks for several reasons: They want to use Hong Kong property as a hedge against volatile currency movements, since the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the US dollar, and they want the dividend yields of Hong Kong property developers, which average about 3%, says Alfred Lau, analyst for Bocom International.
