Asian markets traded mixed on Tuesday morning as investors weighed geopolitical developments and the latest U.S.-Iran talks. In Switzerland, the first senior-level round of negotiations under the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding ended overnight, with Qatar and Pakistan saying in a joint statement that “encouraging progress” had been made, including a mechanism to keep technical talks going.
Japan led the region higher, with the Nikkei 225 jumping 1.95% to a new all-time high above 72,000 for the first time. The Topix rose 1.29%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.22%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7%.
U.S. stock futures were lower ahead of inflation data that could shape Federal Reserve policy. Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.4%, Nasdaq futures lost 0.6%, and Dow Jones futures were down about 183 points, or 0.4%. The shortened trading week ended Thursday with gains, led by technology and chip stocks, as the Nasdaq climbed about 2%, the S&P 500 added about 1.1%, and the Dow rose 0.1%.
Intel jumped after Donald Trump claimed in a post on his social network that the company had struck a deal with Apple to design and manufacture chips in the United States. Trump wrote that “stupid presidents” had taken the economy for granted and allowed Taiwan and others to steal U.S. chip factories.
SpaceX was a major loser this week, falling 3.6% Thursday to just under $185 per share and dropping more than 4% in premarket trading Friday. It had surged from its $135 IPO price to an intraday peak above $225 on Tuesday, but has since lost about 20% of its value. Yahoo Finance cited a five-day VWAP of $181.71, meaning many investors who bought after the IPO have nearly erased their gains.
In commodities, Brent crude fell to around $79 a barrel, a three-month low, while gold closed near $4,170 an ounce. Bitcoin also weakened, trading around $64,000 amid concerns that Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin, may need to sell more coins to fund dividend payments.
