TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday, with benchmarks changing little as investors waited to see what U.S. President Donald Trump will announce about tariffs on what he refers to as “Liberation Day."
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to 35,718.61.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.1% to 23,176.47, while the Shanghai Composite edged less than 0.1% lower to 3,346.66.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1% to 7,934.50. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.7% to 2,504.86.
“Amid the uncertainty on tariffs details, risk sentiments were broadly fragile,” Tan Jing Yi at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.
Tuesday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,633.07 after roaring back from an early drop of 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged less than 0.1% lower, to 41,989.96. The Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to 17,449.89.
Markets have been particularly shaky recently, and momentum has been swinging not just day to day but hour to hour because of uncertainty about what Trump will do with tariffs — and by how much they will worsen inflation and erode growth for economies.
In the bond market, Treasury yields sank after a report said U.S. manufacturing activity contracted last month, breaking a two-month streak of growth. A separate report said U.S. employers were advertising slightly fewer job openings at the end of February than economists expected.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.23% late Monday and from roughly 4.80% in January. That’s a significant move for the bond market, and yields have been falling with worries about a potentially slowing U.S. economy.
Companies are saying they’re already feeling effects from Trump’s trade war, even ahead of Wednesday when Trump has promised to roll out a set of tariffs, or taxes on imports from other countries, that he says will free the U.S. from a reliance on foreign goods.
The U.S. economy is still growing and the job market has remained relatively solid even with February’s slightly weaker-than-expected job openings.
Even if Trump announces less-punishing tariffs than feared on Wednesday, though, the stop-and-start rollout of his trade strategy may by itself cause U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending, which would damage the economy. Trump has pushed for tariffs in part to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries.
All the nervousness in the market has helped push the price of gold to records, and it briefly topped $3,175 per ounce Tuesday. That’s up from less than $2,700 at the start of the year.
On Wall Street, Tesla charged 3.6% higher a day ahead of reporting how many vehicles it delivered during the first three months of the year.
Worries have grown about a potential backlash from customers, and protestors have been swarming Tesla showrooms due to anger about CEO Elon Musk’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending. Tesla’s stock is still down by roughly a third for the year so far.
PVH jumped 18.2% after the company behind the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it plans to send $500 million to shareholders this year through purchases of its own stock.
Newsmax soared another 179% to follow up on its 735% surge from Monday, which was the first day of trading for the news company’s stock.
On the losing end of Wall Street was Johnson & Johnson, which dropped 7.6% after a U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied the company’s settlement plan related to baby powder containing talc. It’s the third time the company’s attempt to resolve the baby powder settlement through bankruptcy has been rejected by courts.
In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude lost 8 cents to $71.12 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9 cents to $74.40.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 149.83 Japanese yen from 149.62 yen. The euro cost $1.0794, up from $1.0791.