Stocks in Asia-Pacific Failed to Strengthen their Positions

It was not a perfect day for stocks in Asia-Pacific, with Chinese tech giant Baidu experiencing a muted debut in Hong Kong. People should keep in mind that, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses among the region’s major markets as it dropped 1.34% to end its trading day at 28,497.38.

Moreover, mainland Chinese stocks also suffered losses on March 23. The Shanghai composite fell 0.93% to 3,411.51. At the same time, the Shenzhen component declined 1.117% to close at 13,607.27.

Furthermore, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.61% to finish its trading day at 28,995.92. In the meantime, the Topix index fell 0.94% to end its trading day at 1,971.48.

Moreover, South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.01% to close at 3,004.74.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.11% to close at 6,745.40.

Let’s have a look at the corporate developments. As stated above, it was not an easy day for Baidu. Interestingly, Baidu’s stock saw a lackluster Tuesday debut in Hong Kong. Its shares closed unchanged from their issue price. As a reminder, the tech giant joins a long list of U.S.-listed Chinese tech companies that have done secondary offerings in Hong Kong, including  Alibaba as well as JD.com. The tensions between the largest economies in the world have to potential to create numerous challenges all over the world.

It is worth mentioning that, technology stocks in Asia-Pacific fell on Tuesday. Importantly, shares of Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group dropped 0.9%. Also, shares of South Korea’s LG Electronics declined 6.13%.

Moreover, in Hong Kong, shares of Tencent fell 0.79%. Also, the shares of Meituan declined 5.24%.

U.S. Stocks on March 22

It is worth noting that, the moves in regional tech stocks came after their counterparts in the U.S. rallied on Monday amid declining bond yields. People should keep in mind that, the Nasdaq Composite added 1.23% to end its trading day at 13,377.54.

Furthermore, other major indexes on Wall Street also strengthened their positions on Monday. Importantly, the S&P 500 added 0.7% to close at 3,94059. In the meantime, Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 103.23 points to 32,731.20.

As a reminder, the moves in the U.S. came as the 10-year Treasury yield dropped 5 basis points to around 1.68% after a 14-month high touched last week. It is worth mentioning that, 1 basis point equals 0.01%. Interestingly, it last stood at 1.647%.