TOKYO (news agencies) — Asian shares mostly declined Thursday as investors grappled with uncertainty ahead of the U.S. election next Tuesday.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 0.5% to 39,081.25. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3% to 8,160.00. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 20,451.69, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.5% to 3,282.13.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.2% to 2,563.14, after North Korea’s test-launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile that is designed to hit the U.S. mainland in a move that was likely meant to grab America’s attention ahead of Election Day.
Markets also were watching the Bank of Japan, which kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.25%. Japan is also facing political uncertainty after the ruling party, tainted by campaign financing scandals, lost its majority in the lower house of parliament, at elections last weekend.
Upcoming earnings releases in Asia, as well as the rest of the world, also added to the wait-and-see mood.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% to 5,813.67 after drifting between small gains and losses several times, though it’s still near its all-time high set earlier in October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.2% to 42,141.54, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6% to 18,607.93, from its own record set the day before.
Alphabet climbed 2.8% after beating analysts’ forecasts for profit in the latest quarter, thanks largely to the performance of its Google business. It’s the latest of the highly influential group of stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” to top high expectations for growth.
Computer chip companies have been some of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence rush, but Advanced Micro Devices helped drag down stocks across the industry after reporting profit for the latest quarter that only matched analysts’ expectations.
Nvidia, a chip giant that’s rocketed to become one of Wall Street’s largest most influential stocks, fell 1.4% and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
