Stock Market Today: Asian Shares Rise, S&P 500 Nears 5,000

Bangkok, Feb 8 (AP) Share were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after the S and P 500 neared the 5,000 level for the first time.

Hong Kong's benchmark fell while Shanghai advanced after China replaced its top stock market regulator. Tokyo surged 2 per cent on strong corporate earnings.

Beijing has been struggling to prop up what have been some of the world's worst-performing markets this year. Late Wednesday, China's top stock regulator was replaced by a former chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange as part of those efforts.

Wu Qing, also a former banker and ex-vice mayor of Shanghai, has been dubbed the “broker butcher”, analysts say, due to his record for cracking down on market abuses such as insider trading.

The announcement that Yi Huiman was being dismissed from his post as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission came without any explanation. But the ruling Communist Party may have chosen him as a way of signalling its resolve to protect smaller investors who have taken a drubbing in the recent sell-offs.

Market observers have cited the lack of transparency surrounding how the markets are run as a factor undermining investor confidence.

On Thursday, the Shanghai Composite index gained 1.2 per cent to 23,862.31 and the Shenzhen Components index in China's smaller main market surged 2.2 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9 per cent, to 15,941.66 on heavy selling of technology companies, despite strong gains for property developers.

Market heavyweight and e-commerce giant Alibaba's shares dropped 6.8 per cent after the company announced a major share buyback and said it was giving up plans for share listing for two of its group companies.

On Wednesday, Wall Street rose to the edge of another record-breaking milestone as Ford Motor, Chipotle Mexican Grill and other big stocks climbed following their latest earnings reports.

The S and P 500 gained 0.8 per cent, coming within a fraction of a point of the 5,000 level before ending the day at 4,995.06.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4 per cent to 38,677.36, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9 per cent to 15,756.64.

A relatively calm day in the bond market helped smooth the way for stocks, despite some concerns about investors' ability to digest a USD 42 billion auction of 10-year Treasurys by the US government.

Early Thursday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.10 per cent. Bonds have been on a jagged run recently as signals of a remarkably resilient economy force traders to push back forecasts for when the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates.

Below the surface were still some very sharp moves. New York Community Bancorp went from an initial gain to a steep loss of 14 per cent and back to a gain of 6.7 per cent.

The bank is still down by more than half since rattling investors across the industry last week with a surprise loss.

It has been hit by weakness in the commercial real estate market and also is burdened with challenges related to its acquisition of Signature Bank, which was one of the banks that collapsed in last year's mini-crisis for the industry.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Ford Motor climbed 6 per cent following its better-than-expected results, while Enphase Energy soared 16.9 per cent despite falling just shy of forecasts. Investors are hopeful that weakness in demand for the supplier of solar and battery systems is nearing a bottom.

Chipotle Mexican Grill rose 7.2 per cent after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

CVS Health gained 3.1 per cent after it likewise topped expectations for both profit and revenue in the final three months of 2023.

Such gains helped offset a 9.7 per cent drop for VF Corp., the company behind Vans, The North Face and other brands. It reported weaker results than analysts expected.

Snap tumbled 34.6 per cent after its fourth-quarter revenue fell short of analysts' expectations. The company behind Snapchat also gave a tepid forecast for 2024 after saying on Monday that it was laying off 10 per cent of its workforce.

In other trading on Thursday, US benchmark crude oil gained 29 cents to USD 74.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 33 cents to USD 79.54 per barrel.

The dollar rose to 148.48 Japanese yen from 148.18 yen. The euro climbed to USD 1.0782 from USD 1.0774.