BANGKOK — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday, with Chinese markets gaining after Wall Street extended its losses on worries over inflation and tariffs.
The rally in Chinese shares was led by gains for technology companies. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.4% to 23,811.21, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.8% to 3,372.74.
Hong Kong-traded shares in food delivery company Meituan surged 10.2%, while e-commerce giant Alibaba gained 5.7%. Gaming and technology company Tencent Holdings advanced 3.4% and search engine and AI company Baidu was up 3.7%.
Such companies have regaining some strength as Beijing has indicated stronger support for the private sector after years of crackdowns on tech companies.
Elsewhere in the region, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.8% to 37,928.96, as investors sold shares in big Japanese trading companies following gains driven by billionaire Warren Buffett’s disclosure in his annual letter to shareholders that he increased Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in those companies.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4% to 2,641.09.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.1% to 8,240.70. In Taiwan, the Taiex gained 0.5%. Thailand’s SET was up 0.9%.
On Tuesday, some of Wall Street’s brightest stars lost more of their shine after a report said U.S. households are getting more pessimistic about the economy.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 5,955.25, falling as much as 1.2% during the day.
The Nasdaq composite sank 1.4% to 19,026.39 as several influential Big Tech companies lost momentum and screeched lower. But the majority of stocks nevertheless rose, which helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average add 0.4% to 43,621.16.
Nvidia fell 2.8%, while Tesla tumbled 8.4%.
Nvidia is due to announce its profit on Wednesday, its first earnings report since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, upended the artificial-intelligence industry by saying it has developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most expensive chips.
That called into question all the spending Wall Street had assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centers.
Weaker than expected economic reports have siphoned away the momentum that took Wall Street to repeated records in recent months.
“What was supposed to be a soft-landing narrative is quickly turning into a hard dose of reality,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a report.
“The U.S. economic backdrop is shifting sharply lower, a stark contrast to the euphoria that defined the start of ’25. And now, investors are scrambling to adjust their positioning on the fly,” he said.
The U.S. economy still appears to be in solid shape, and growth is continuing at the moment. But for the first time since June, a measure of consumers’ expectations for the economy in the short term fell below a threshold that usually signals a recession ahead, according to The Conference Board. The increase in pessimism was broad-based and carried across both higher- and lower-income households, as well as older and younger ones.
Wall Street tracks consumer confidence because strong spending is what helps keep stave off recession. And Tuesday’s report echoed what an earlier report from the University of Michigan suggested: Consumers see the current situation as OK, but they’re worried about the future.
In other dealings early Wednesday, Bitcoin was trading at $88,800.
Treasury yields pulled back as investors herded into investments generally seen as safer in times of uncertainty. Yields have been swinging since President Donald Trump’s election amid worries over how his policies on tariffs, immigration and taxes could affect the global economy.
Trump has antagonized U.S. trading partners recently, threatening to raise tariffs and inviting them to retaliate with import taxes of their own. Trump said Monday that tariff hikes on imports from Canada and Mexico will move ahead after a one-month delay.
U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 18 cents to $69.11 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped $1.37 to $72.68 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 149.60 Japanese yen from 149.03 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0494 from $1.0515.
