Asian shares are mostly higher, tracking US rally into record heights

Winnipeg Free Press

10 hours ago

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Asian shares are mostly higher after U.S. stocks added to their records with the close of a second straight winning month.
U.S. futures and oil prices were lower.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% to 40,003.24 despite positive results of the central bank's quarterly Tankan survey of large manufacturers, which showed an better than expected improvement in business sentiment.
The Shanghai Composite index added 0.2% to 3,451.69 after China's official manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, rose to a three-month high of 49.7 in June while the PMI for services and other non-manufacturing businesses also rose to a three-month high of 50.5.
Hong Kong's stock market was closed on Tuesday.
South Korea's KOSPI Composite Index surged 1.5% to 3,117.17 after the government reported that exports bounced back in June, helped by strong demand for semiconductors, ships and health products.
'Automobile and automotive parts exports also gained. Strong electric vehicle exports to the EU and solid used-car exports partially offset the decline of U.S. exports. However, we expect auto exports to remain soft due to tariffs and increased production in the U.S.,' Min Joo Kang of ING Economics said in a report.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1% to 8,550.80.
The PSEi in Manila, Philippines, rose 0.2%.
On Monday, Wall Street resumed its upward climb.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 6,204.95. It has staged a stunning recovery from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6% to 44,094.77, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5% to 20,369.73.
Stocks got a boost after Canada said it would rescind a planned tax on U.S. technology firms and trade talks with the United States resumed. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump had said he was suspending those talks to retaliate for the tax, calling it 'a direct and blatant attack on our country.'
U.S. stocks have bounced back on hopes that Trump will reach deals with other countries to lower his painful high tariffs and avert trade wars that could stifle the economy and send inflation higher.
Many of Trump's announced tariffs have been postponed and are due to kick back into effect on July 9.
The U.S. stock market recovery could raise the risk Trump will resume escalating tariffs, similar to what happened in 2018-2019, according to strategists at Deutsche Bank led by Parag Thatte and Binky Chadha.
On Wall Street, Oracle's 4% rise was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. CEO Safra Catz said the tech giant 'is off to a strong start' in its fiscal year and that it signed multiple large cloud services agreements, including one that could contribute over $30 billion in annual revenue two fiscal years from now.
GMS' stock jumped 11.7% after the supplier of specialty building products said it agreed to sell itself to a Home Depot subsidiary in a deal that would pay $110.00 per share in cash. That would give it a total value of roughly $5.5 billion, including debt.
Less than two weeks ago, another company, QXO, said it was offering to buy GMS for $95.20 per share in cash. After the announcement of the Home Depot bid, QXO's stock rose 3.9%, and Home Depot's stock slipped 0.6%.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise rallied 11.1% and Juniper Networks climbed 8.4% after saying they had reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that could clear the way for their merger go through, subject to court approval. HPE is trying to buy Juniper in a $14 billion deal.
Bank stocks were also solid after the Federal Reserve said on Friday that they are financially strong enough to survive a downturn in the economy. JPMorgan Chase climbed 1%, and Citigroup gained 0.9%.
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
In the bond market, Treasury yields fell ahead of several major economic reports later in the week. The highlight will be Thursday's jobs report. It's often the most anticipated economic data of each month, and it will come a day earlier than usual because of Friday's Fourth of July holiday.
In other dealings early Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 37 cents to $64.74 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, fell 35 cents per barrel to $66.39.
The U.S. dollar dipped to 143.86 Japanese yen from 144.04 yen. The euro rose to $1.1792 from $1.1789.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.