Investing.com - Asian Pacific stock markets began the week with mixed results, following a surge in the S&P 500 to new highs last week, propelled by strong earnings reports from Meta and Amazon.
BY 11:30 am AEDT (12:30 am GMT). the S&P/ASX 200 and KOSPI 200 saw declines of 1.2% and 1.5% respectively, while Japan's Nikkei 225 experienced a 0.5% uptick.
In North America, U.S. stocks managed to overcome early weaknesses to close substantially higher, driven by impressive earnings from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META). The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 134 points to 38654, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 1.1% to 4958 and 1.7% to 15628 respectively, both achieving new record highs.
The US dollar saw a significant rise against the yen and euro, while the United States 10-Year Treasury yield increased to 4.02%. In the commodities market, Brent crude oil declined by 1.7% to US$77.33 a barrel, and gold dropped 0.7% to US$2,039.76.
Chinese shares ended the week on a negative note, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slightly declined by 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average, however, rose by 0.4%, reflecting gains on Wall Street. Indian shares closed higher, buoyed by the country's interim budget announced last week.
In Europe, stocks saw a sharp reduction in gains, with major indexes largely flat or slightly higher. This was due to the U.S. jobs data, which significantly exceeded expectations, making an early Federal Reserve interest-rate cut highly unlikely. The FTSE 100 index in the UK marginally declined by 0.1% on Friday to 7,615.54 points, partially due to slipping oil-and-gas majors on lower oil prices.