Asian stock markets lower after Wall St hits record again

Asian stock markets are lower after Wall Street rose to a record for an eighth day

Hong Kong Financial Markets (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Asian stock markets fell Tuesday after Wall Street rose to a record for an eighth day.

Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul declined while Shanghai advanced.

Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index added 0.1% on Monday, boosted by gains for construction-related stocks after Congress last week approved a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Also Monday, the deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve, Richard Clarida, said conditions to raise interest rates might not be met until late next year. Traders worry a spike in inflation might prompt central banks to withdraw stimulus that helped to boost stock prices.

“Investors will be on the lookout for any clues that signal an adjustment to central banks’ taper process and rate hikes expectations,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.6% to 29,325.30 while the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.2% to 3,498.80. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined less than 0.1% to 24,750.33.

The Kospi in Seoul lost 0.1% to 2,956.10 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 7,444.70.

India's Sensex opened down 0.2% at 60,425.05. New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta advanced while Singapore declined.

Also Tuesday, Japan's government reported wage growth fell to a three-month lost of 0.2% over a year earlier in September.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 4,701.70, setting a record for an eighth day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 36,432.22. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.1% to 15,982.36. Both also were records.

Vulcan Materials, which sells crushed stone and concrete, rose 4.9%. Equipment-maker Caterpillar rose 4.1%.

Investor worries about inflation have been soothed by stronger corporate profits.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 10.1% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after announcing Facebook parent company Meta would use AMD chips in its data centers. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 3.5%.

Steelmakers and other companies that stand to benefit from increased infrastructure spending also rallied following Congress' passage of the infrastructure bill. Nucor gained 3.6%.

The Labor Department is due to report wholesale inflation Tuesday and consumer inflation Wednesday.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 3 cents to $81.90 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 66 cents on Monday to $81.93. Brent crude, the price basis for international oils, shed 8 cents to $83.35 in London. It 69 cents the previous session to $83.43 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 112.78 yen from Monday's 113.24 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1602 from $1.1589.