Asian stocks climb ahead of U.S. earnings

Asian stocks climb ahead of U.S. earnings

BEIJING — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher as investors waited Tuesday for U.S. corporate results to see how companies are coping with supply disruptions and the past quarter’s surge in coronavirus infections.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.3%, propelled by tech and consumer stocks.

“It was a good day to be a mega-cap tech stock,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +0.70% rose 0.7% to 3,593.66 and the Nikkei 225 NIK, +0.65% in Tokyo advanced 0.5% to 29,194.19. The Hang Seng HSI, +1.49% in Hong Kong added 1.1% to 25,708.

The Kospi 180721, +0.74% in Seoul was 0.6% higher at 3,024.79 and Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -0.08% was flat at 7,385.10.

New Zealand and Singapore advanced while Jakarta declined.

On Wall Street, health care giant Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -0.73%, United Airlines UAL, -1.73% and streaming entertainment service Netflix NFLX, +1.54% were due to report earnings Tuesday. American Airlines AAL, -0.70% and Southwest Airlines LUV, -1.17% follow Thursday.

Companies are warning that supply disruptions stemming from the pandemic are hampering production and could hurt them financially.

Investors worry that is fueling inflation and might hurt an economic recovery.

“The inflation pressures we expected are here — and are persistent,” researchers at the BlackRock Investment Institute said in a report.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.34% rose to 4,486.46. The index gained 1.8% last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.10% fell 36.15 points, or 0.1%, to 35,258.61. The Nasdaq COMP, +0.84% rose 124.47, or 0.8%, 15,021.81.

Chipmaker Nvidia rose 1.6% and Target rose 3.2%.

Those gains were tempered by losses for health care and other companies. Medical device vendor Medtronic MDT, -5.50% fell 5.5%.

The S&P 500 is within roughly 1.1% of its Sept. 2 all-time high.

Also Tuesday, the Commerce Department was due to report on September housing starts.

On Monday, Toyota Motor Co. TM, +1.29% 7203, -0.49% rose 1.3% after announcing plans to build a $1.3 billion factory in the United States to make batteries for electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles. TV station owner Sinclair Broadcasting SBGI, -2.94% fell 2.9% after reporting a data breach.

Also Monday, Federal Reserve on Monday reported an unexpectedly big 1.3% drop in U.S. industrial production. Nearly half of that was blamed on lingering effects of Hurricane Ida.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude CL00, 1.08% rose 19 cents to $81.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude BRN00, 0.72%, used to price international oils, rose 5 cents to $84.39.

The dollar fell to 114.13 yen USDJPY, -0.14% from Monday’s 114.26 yen. The euro EURUSD, 0.36% rose to $1.1648 from $1.1610.

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