MANILA, Philippines -- Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after the U.S.stock market again approached its record high following the Federal Reserve’s cut in its main interest rate.
U.S.futures and oil prices fell.
The Fed's rate cut was widely expected, but comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell encouraged hopes for more cuts in 2026.However, some Asian technology companies saw sharp declines after Oracle, a bellwether in the artificial intelligence sector, reported weaker than expected earnings.
Its shares sank 11.5% in aftermarket trading.The company’s spending spree in AI has some worried about its cash flow.
“Frankly, the report was not dramatically bad, but it came to confirm concerns around heavy AI spending, financed by debt, with an unknown timeline for revenue generation,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index fell 0.9% to 50,148.82, pulled lower by a 7.7% drop in technology and telecoms giant SoftBank Group Corp., a major investor in AI.Local shares are under pressure from growing expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates at its meeting next week.Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed earlier gains and shed 0.1% to 25,513.38 after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority followed the Fed’s lead and trimmed borrowing costs to 4.00%, their lowest rate since October 2022.
The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.7% to 3,873.32.Sentiment was cautious ahead of China’s November credit data.New yuan loans fell sharply in October, missing forecasts and showing weaker consumer demand.Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.2% to 8,592.00 after three days of decline, boosted by strength in gold and mining stocks.
The country's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November was unchanged from October at 4.3%, below the expected 4.4%In South Korea, the Kospi shed gains in early session, falling 0.6% to 4,110.62.Chip maker SK Hynix fell 3.8% after the country's main stock exchange issued warnings over its ...