Asian shares edge higher ahead of Fed signals, mixed finish on Wall Street

Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday after a mixed finish on Wall Street, where shares in Nvidia, Palantir and other superstar stocks pared their earlier steep losses.

Traders are looking ahead for cues about US monetary policy from a meeting of central bankers that begins later in the day in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak at the conference on Friday.

The Fed has kept its main interest rate steady this year, primarily because of the fear of the possibility that President Donald Trump's tariffs could push inflation higher. But a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the US may be superseding that.

 

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 per cent to 42,636.74 after a survey showed Japan's factory activity remained in contraction for the second month in August. The S&P Global flash Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) increased to 49.9 in August from 48.9 in July, just below the 50 level that delineates between growth and decline.

Regional manufacturers have been feeling pressure from Trump's higher tariffs on exports to the United States.

In Chinese markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index edged 0.1 per cent lower to 25,135.09, while the Shanghai composite index rose 0.4 per cent to 3,779.52.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 1 per cent to 3,161.74, while Australia's S&P ASX 200 index added 1 per cent to 9,005.00.

Taiwan's TAIEX climbed 1.2 per cent, while India's Sensex added 0.1 per cent.

Asian markets walked into Thursday like a card room still heavy with last night's smoke muted, watchful, waiting for the next cue out of Jackson Hole, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 per cent to 6,395.78 after trimming a 1.1 per cent loss earlier in the day. It is still near its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1 per cent to 44,938.31. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7 per cent to 21,172.86.

The day's action centred again around stocks caught up in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world's move into AI, sank as much as 3.9 per cent during the morning and was on track to be the heaviest weight on Wall Street following its 3.5 per cent fall on Tuesday.

But it clawed back nearly all of Wednesday's drop and finished with a dip of just 0.1 per cent. As it pared its loss, so did broad market indexes because Nvidia is Wall Street's most influential stock by being its most valuable.

Palantir Technologies, another AI darling, fell 1.1 per cent to add to its 9.4 per cent loss from the day before, but it had been down as much as 9.8 per cent on Wednesday morning.

One possible contributor to the swoon was a study from MIT's Nanda Initiative that warned that most corporations are not yet seeing any measurable return from their generative AI investments, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

But the larger factor may be the simple criticism that prices for such stock have simply shot too high, too fast, amid the furore around AI and have become too expensive.

In other dealings early Thursday, US. benchmark crude gained 30 cents to $63.01 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 26 cents to $67.10 per barrel.

The US dollar rose to 147.37 Japanese yen, from 147.29 yen. The euro slid to $1.1648 from $1.1659.