BANGKOK – World shares were mixed on Monday as investors watched for further developments after a U.S. court ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping higher tariffs.
U.S. markets were to remain closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sharply higher import taxes on almost every country on earth.
The ruling largely upheld a May decision by a specialized federal trade court in New York. But the 7-4 appeals court decision tossed out a part of that ruling striking down the tariffs immediately, allowing the administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
European markets opened higher, with Germany's DAX up 0.5% to 24,018.29 and the CAC 40 in Paris rising 0.4% to 7,735.88.
Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.3% to 9,212.78.
In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.2% to 25,617.42, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.5% to 3,875.53.
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding's shares traded in Hong Kong rocketed 19% higher after the company reported strong growth in its cloud computing segment and other areas including “instant commerce,” or hyper-fast deliveries at low prices. Alibaba's U.S traded shares surged 13.5% on Friday.
A government survey released Saturday showed China’s factory activity improved marginally in August, with the purchasing managers index, or PMI, issued by the National Statistics Bureau rising to 49.4 from 49.3 in July. The survey is on a scale of 0 to 100 where 50 marks the cutoff for expansion.
Another, private sector survey called the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI showed the general PMI at 50.5 last month, up from 49.4 in July. Averaging the two surveys yields a PMI of 49.9, suggesting some resilience in the manufacturing sector despite U.S. tariffs of over 50% on Chinese goods, Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary.
China and the U.S. are still negotiating over a broad trade agreement.
“The PMIs suggest that China’s economy accelerated last month, thanks to faster growth across manufacturing and services. But we don’t see much upside over the rest of the year,” Huang said.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.2% to 42,188.79, while the Kospi in South Korea shed 1.4% to 3,142.93.
Shares also fell in Australia, with the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.5% to 8,924.70.
Taiwan's benchmark lost 0.7% and India's Sensex gained 0.7%.
Shares sank 1.2% in Jakarta after Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, pledged Sunday to revoke lawmakers’ perks and privileges, to try to ease public fury after nationwide protests left six people dead. It was a rare concession in response to mounting public anger.
On Friday, Wall Street closed out another winning month though benchmarks ended below their latest all-time highs.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6% a day after climbing to a record high, ending the week at 6,460.26. The benchmark index ended August with a 1.9% gain, its fourth straight month of gains. It’s now up 9.8% so far this year.
The Dow also came off its own record high, slipping 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite closed 1.2% lower.
Losses in technology shares weighed on the market, offsetting gains in health care and other sectors.
Dell Technologies slid 8.9% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks a day after the company reported second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations, but noted that margin pressures and weakness in PC revenue.
In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil reversed earlier losses, gaining 62 cents to $64.63 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, advanced 60 cents to $68.08 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 147.07 Japanese yen from 147.02 yen. The euro rose to $1.1725 from $1.1696.