Asian stocks were mostly in the red on Tuesday, following a drop on Wall Street, as investors looked toward British elections later in the week.
Keeping Score
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 0.7% in morning trading to 20,026.45. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.1% at 5,692.10. South Korean markets were closed for the Memorial Day holiday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.2% to 25,923.17, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.2% to 3,084.95.
UK Elections
Britain is set for general elections on Thursday, although the campaign has paused for grief in the aftermath of Saturday’s deadly attack in the London Bridge area. The election campaign was earlier halted for three days in the wake of the May 22 concert bombing in Manchester, which killed 22 people.
Wall Street
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dipped 2.97 points, or 0.1%, to 2,436.10. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 22.25 points, or 0.1%, to 21,184.04. The Nasdaq composite index lost 10.11 points, or 0.2%, to 6,295.68.
The Quote
“With U.S. markets moving less than a flicker from last Friday’s closing levels, Asian markets could find little to draw inspiration from,” says Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore.
Energy
Benchmark U.S. crude slid 28 cents to $47.12 a barrel. It fell 26 cents to $47.40 a barrel in New York Monday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 26 cents to $49.21 a barrel in London.
Cuurencies
In currency trading, the euro fell slightly to $1.1271 from $1.1276 late Monday in Asia. The dollar weakened to 109.83 yen from 110.48 yen.
