Asian Stocks Edge Lower After Wall Street Gains: Markets Wrap

Asian stocks opened lower Tuesday, diverging from Wall Street gains after Amazon.com Inc.'s $38 billion deal with OpenAI had reignited enthusiasm for artificial intelligence shares.

Stocks opened lower in South Korea and Japan, where traders returned after a long weekend. Australian shares fell ahead of a central bank rate decision where policymakers are expected to stand pat. Contracts for the S&P 500 fell 0.1% after the underlying gauge posted a modest gain Monday, although more than 300 members in the index actually retreated.

In other corners of the market, a gauge of the dollar edged up, while gold dipped 0.2%. The yen declined.

A slew of tech deals from Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet Inc. had provided a fresh momentum to Wall Street Monday as November trading kicked off after seven consecutive months of gains for global stocks. Since the tariff-fueled selloff in April, equities have gained about $17 trillion in market value with the rally increasingly concentrated in technology heavyweights, pushing calls for broader-market consolidation.

“Concerns over high valuations persist, and the Federal Reserve's policy outlook appears murkier,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Despite the strong gains in equity markets this year, we continue to believe that this bull market has room to run.”

Traders were also focused on economic reports and comments from central bank officials. US factory activity shrank in October for an eighth straight month while inflationary pressures continued to ease.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said she sees the risk of further labor-market weakness as greater than the risk that inflation will pick up. She stopped short of endorsing another interest-rate cut next month.

Her comments echoed remarks from her colleagues who were equally noncommittal about whether the central bank should deliver a third straight rate reduction when policymakers convene in December.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned he's more concerned about inflation than jobs. His San Francisco counterpart Mary Daly said officials should “keep an open mind” about the possibility of a December cut. Governor Stephen Miran noted policy remains restrictive. 

Corporate Highlights:

• Palantir Technologies Inc. raised its annual revenue outlook to $4.4 billion and outpaced analyst estimates for third-quarter sales, citing “accelerating and otherworldly” growth for its artificial intelligence and data analytics products.

• Starbucks Corp. is selling a majority stake in its China unit to private equity firm Boyu Capital for $4 billion to help accelerate its coffeehouse business in the country.

• Grab Holdings Ltd. raised its earnings forecast for the year after quarterly profit topped estimates, signaling robust demand for the Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery firm's new products.

• Netflix Inc. is in talks to license video podcasts distributed by iHeartMedia Inc. as it looks to compete head on with YouTube, according to people familiar with the conversations.

• Samsung SDI is in talks with Tesla to supply batteries, the South Korean battery maker says in a regulatory filing.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures fell 0.2% as of 9:15 a.m. Tokyo time

• Hang Seng futures were little changed

• Japan's Topix fell 0.5%

• Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5%

• Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed

• The euro was little changed at $1.1509

• The Japanese yen was little changed at 154.34 per dollar

• The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1283 per dollar

• The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6532

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $106,282.61

• Ether was little changed at $3,597.83

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.11%

• Japan's 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 1.675%

• Australia's 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.36%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $60.96 a barrel

• Spot gold fell 0.2% to $3,995.40 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.