- Asian markets saw a decline on Wednesday following Wall Street’s dismal start to 2024.
- Oil prices barely moved, while U.S. futures were down.
- India’s Sensex fell 0.5%, and Bangkok’s SET dropped 0.4%.
Asian markets saw a decline on Wednesday following Wall Street’s dismal start to 2024, which saw it give up some of its significant gains from the previous year. Oil prices barely moved, while U.S. futures were down.
Fears about China’s economic expansion contributed to the decline in both the Shanghai Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which fell 0.1% and 1.1%, respectively, to 2,960.12 and 16,603.00.
Asian shares
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 1% to 7,550.40, while the benchmark in South Korea fell 2% to 2,618.57 on Tuesday following a 19-month high on the back of the short-selling prohibition. India’s Sensex fell 0.5%, and Bangkok’s SET dropped 0.4%. For the New Year’s holiday, Japanese marketplaces were closed.
Tuesday saw a 0.1% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to 37,715.04 and a 0.6% decline in the S&P 500 to 4,742.83. The market was headed by the Nasdaq composite, which fell 1.6% to 14,765.94.
The equities of companies that were the biggest winners of the previous year, such as Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, ASML, and Meta Platforms, saw among of the sharpest declines in the market.
After the Dutch government partially canceled a license to ship some products to customers in China, the Netherlands-based ASML collapsed, and the US has been lobbying for limits on chip technology exports to China.
Following the upgrade of Wall Street analysts ratings on several healthcare stocks—Modera saw a 13.1% increase, Amgen saw a 3.3% gain, and UnitedHealth Group saw a 2.4% increase—healthcare stocks held up better.
Investors anticipated a slowdown in the massive surge that propelled the S&P 500 to nine weeks of gains in a row and to within 0.6% of its record, which was established nearly two years ago. According to a survey, the U.S. manufacturing sector may not be as strong as previously believed, with a decline in new sales at home and overseas.
