Stock market today: Asian shares slip, echoing Wall Street's weak start to 2024
Asian stocks are lower, tracking a weak start to 2024 on Wall Street as Japan's markets reopened
TOKYO — Asian stocks slipped on Thursday, tracking a weak start to 2024 on Wall Street as Japan’s markets reopened.
In Tokyo, the mournful mood was clear as the market began the year with a moment of silence instead of a celebratory New Year's ring of the bell after a major earthquake left at least 77 people dead and dozens missing.
Dark-suited officials bowed their heads on a stage, instead of the customary women clad in colorful kimonos. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% to 33,048.58.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.6% to 16,542.19 and the Shanghai Composite index sank 1% to 2,938.35.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.4% to 7,493.00. South Korea's Kospi declined 0.8% to 2,585.77.
Stocks fell on Wall Street, as the slow start to the year there stretched into a second day.
The S&P 500 lost 0.8% to 4,704.81, though it remains within 2% of its record set exactly two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.8%, from its own record to 37,430.19. The Nasdaq composite led the market lower with a drop of 1.2%, to 14,592.21.
Some of last year’s biggest winners again gave back some of their gains to weigh on the market. Tesla fell 4% after more than doubling last year, for example. It and the other six “Magnificent 7” Big Tech stocks responsible for the majority of Wall Street’s returns last year have regressed some following their tremendous runs.
A couple of reports released Wednesday morning indicated the overall economy may be slowing from its strong growth last summer, which the Federal Reserve hopes will keep a lid on inflation. The risk is it might slow too much.
One report showed U.S. employers were
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