Asian Shares Mixed as Some Recover From Earlier Slump

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 6:06 am | 2 Minute Read

A man walks in the rain past an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo Tuesday. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Asian shares were mixed Tuesday as some indexes recouped earlier losses set off by an overnight decline on Wall Street. Investors are awaiting the first Federal Reserve meeting under the new chairman, Jerome Powell, and anticipating the first rate increase of the year.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.5 percent to finish at 21,380.97. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4 percent to 5,936.40, while South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.2 percent to 2,479.81. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was virtually unchanged at 31,524.83, while the Shanghai Composite edged 0.3 percent higher to 3,289.80.

The technology rout on Wall Street on Monday was set off by Facebook’s worst loss in four years. The social media giant’s plunge followed reports that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm working for President Donald Trump’s campaign, improperly obtained data on 50 million Facebook users without their permission. Legislators in the U.S. and Europe criticized Facebook, and investors are wondering if companies like Facebook and Alphabet will face tighter regulation.

The S&P 500 index sank 1.4 percent to 2,712.92. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.3 percent to 24,610.91. The Nasdaq composite gave up 1.8 percent to 7,344.24 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks declined 1 percent to 1,570.56.

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s first meeting under Jerome Powell’s leadership ends later this week, likely with an announcement that the Fed will resume modest interest-rate hikes. A healthy U.S. job market and a relatively steady economy have given the Fed the confidence to think the economy can withstand further increases. And the financial markets have been edgy for weeks.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 55 cents to $62.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 28 cents on Monday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, also gained 55 cents to $62.60 per barrel in London.

The dollar recovered to 106.27 yen from 105.92 late Monday. The euro rose to $1.2341 from $1.2267.

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