Shares were mixed Tuesday in Asia after benchmarks fell on Wall Street, snapping a nine-day winning streak.
Oil prices bounced back part-way from a 4-year low and U.S. stock futures slipped.
A monthly survey measuring future activity in China’s services sector fell to its lowest level ever, excluding the pandemic, in a further sign the escalation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war is hitting the world’s second-largest economy.
A drastic increase in tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese products, to 145%, has caused a sharp drop in shipping and other logistics.
“Overall optimism among Chinese firms weakened to the lowest level since this series began in April 2012, resulting in further job cuts in April,” said the report by Caixin, a financial media group.
Still, Chinese markets advanced after reopening from “Golden Week” holidays. The Shanghai Composite index added 1% to 3,311.89, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 0.7% at 22,651.65.
Taiwan’s Taiex slipped less than 0.1%
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 8,148.40.
U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 93 cents to $58.08 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, surged $1 to $61.23 per barrel.
The OPEC+ group of eight oil producing nations announced over the weekend that it will raise its output by 411,000 barrels per day as of June 1. The expected increase caused U.S. crude prices to dip as much as 4% on Monday.
Many producers can no longer turn a profit once oil falls below $60. Prices are down sharply for the year over worries about an economic slowdown.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 5,650.38, ending its longest winning streak since 2004.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite shed 0.7%.
Technology companies and other big stocks were among the heaviest weights on the market. Apple slumped 3.1%, while Amazon fell 1.9% and Tesla slipped 2.4%.
Berkshire Hathaway fell 5.1% after legendary investor Warren Buffett announced he would step down as its CEO by the end of the year after six decades at the helm. Buffett will still be its board chairman.
Markets have been absorbing the shock of tariffs and the growing trade war. A three-month delay in many of the severest tariffs that were supposed to take effect in April, excluding China, has provided some relief to Wall Street, but uncertainty about the impact from current and future tariffs remains.
Concerns about inflation reigniting also have deepened.
Such issues will overshadow the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday, when it is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady. The Fed cut the rate three times in 2024 before taking a breather to watch what happens with inflation, which has been hovering just above the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
While still resilient, the U.S. economy has shown some signs of strain from tariffs and the lack of clarity about how Trump’s policies will evolve. The U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter, the first drop in three years.
Ford Motor Co. said Monday it expects to take a $1.5 billion hit to its operating profit from tariffs this year. Its shares fell 2.5% in after hours trading.
Tariffs have been imposed, only to be pulled or delayed, sometimes on a daily basis. The on-again-off-again approach has left businesses, households and economists at a loss in trying to forecast where the economy might be headed and planning accordingly.
The latest salvo in the trade war from Trump came Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform. He said he has authorized a 100% tariff on movies that are produced outside of the U.S. The impact is unclear, as it is common for films to include production at multiple locations around the world.
Netflix slumped 1.9% and Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2%.
Shoemakers posted gains following the announcement that Skechers is being acquired for $9 billion and taken private by the investment firm by 3G Capital. Skechers jumped 24.3%.
Also early Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.37% from 4.35% late Monday.
The dollar rose to 143.86 Japanese yen from 143.70 yen. The euro was at $1.1322, up from $1.1317.
