Ahead of the European markets opening, Asian shares mostly gained on Thursday after US stocks rallied following the midterm elections, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping more than 3% after President Donald Trump’s party lost its sole control of Washington.
Asian markets less heavily exposed to the AI industry mostly climbed on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.8% to 24,597.59, and the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.9% to 9,003.40.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil was trading near $94, around its lowest level in two months.
Selling of shares related to artificial intelligence extended losses. South Korea’s Kospi briefly sank more than 4% on heavy selling of computer chipmakers. By late morning, it was trading 3.5% lower at 5,484.38.
Shares in Samsung Electronics sank 5.7%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix lost 7.4%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.5% to 61,914.53. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group shed 5.3%, while computer chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron skidded 7.7% and testing equipment maker Advantest tumbled 9.4%.
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1.6%.
On Wednesday, on Wall Street, stocks of hospital owners and dollar stores serving low-income Americans helped lead the widespread rally following nationwide losses for Republicans.
Overall, the election may not matter much for the broad market in the long term. Stock prices depend more on where company profits and interest rates are heading than on who controls what in Washington. But investors generally prefer split control of Washington because it lessens the risk of transformative changes to the economy.
But investors see risks ahead for Trump’s social media company, the artificial intelligence industry and businesses owned by Elon Musk, who donated heavily to Republicans.
Trump Media & Technology Group was one of the market’s bigger losers on Wednesday, down 24.5%.
Since briefly touching a peak of $175 five years ago, it has dropped to $4.49. Its main business is Truth Social, which is best known for Trump’s postings on the platform.
Elon Musk’s businesses also struggled. Tesla fell 3.3%, and SpaceX sank 3.8%. Musk, a former top Trump adviser, is among the possible targets of investigations by a Democratic-controlled Congress.
Given Trump’s role as a big backer of the AI industry, the setback for Republicans has added to worries over whether share prices boosted by the buildup of AI have risen too high.
A Democratic-led Congress could push Trump to pull back on the war with Iran, and that hurt stocks of companies that make weapons and other equipment for the US military. Lockheed Martin sank 6.9%; Northrop Grumman fell 4.5% and General Dynamics lost 2.6%.
The possibility of pressure to pull back on the war also hurt stocks of big oil companies, which had been rallying for much of the year. ExxonMobil fell 4.6%, and ConocoPhillips dropped 5.2%.
In other dealings early Thursday, the US dollar slipped to 157.96 Japanese yen from 158.41 yen. The euro rose to $1.1256 from $1.1228.
Source: www.euronews.com
