(Bloomberg) — Most Asian stocks declined following losses on Wall Street after an unimpressive start to the earnings reports from the “Magnificent Seven” megacap technology companies.
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Equity benchmarks in Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China all fell along with US stock futures. Earnings from some of corporate America’s largest businesses including Tesla Inc. and Alphabet Inc. were seen as insufficient to justify the recent rally in global equities. The yen gained for a third day before next week’s Bank of Japan meeting.
“The bar from investors after the runup we’ve seen in global equities year to date, investors are looking for opportunities to take some profit,” Eli Lee, chief investment strategist at Bank of Singapore Ltd., said on Bloomberg Television. “Though we think tech earnings are going to be fairly resilient over the next few weeks, we may see some volatility in equity markets.”
Alphabet retreated in US trading Tuesday after the company’s chief signaled patience will be needed to see concrete results from artificial-intelligence investments. Tesla slid as much as 7% after profit missed estimates and the electric-vehicle giant delayed its Robotaxi event to October. Most shares of Tesla suppliers and electric vehicle peers in Asia declined such as suppliers Panasonic Holdings Inc. in Japan and Ningo Joyson Electronic Corp. in China.
Taipei’s bourse is shut for a typhoon, meaning shares of tech giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are not trading.
The yen strengthened past 155 per dollar for the first time since early June as traders repositioned for the possibility the BOJ will raise interest rates in coming months if not at its policy meeting next week. Only about 30% of BOJ watchers predict the authorities will hike rates on July 31, but more than 90% say there is a risk of such a move, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The New Zealand dollar fell to the weakest level in nearly three months as lower bond yields in the nation deterred carry trade investors.
Most Chinese shares fell, extending recent…
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