BEIJING (AP) — Stock markets stabilized Tuesday after a sell-off led by technology shares dragged Wall Street sharply lower the day before. The price of oil fell after U.S. President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia should not cut production, as it had said it would.
KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, Germany’s DAX advanced 0.7 percent to 11,409 and France’s CAC 40 added 0.4 percent to 5,081. London’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent to 7,073. On Wall Street, the futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were both up 0.6 percent.
ASIA’S DAY: Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2 percent to 21,810.52 while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9 percent to 2,654.88. Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 retreated 1.8 percent to 5,834.20 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5 percent to 25,750.52. Seoul’s Kospi gave up 0.4 percent to 2,071.23 and India’s Sensex added 0.4 percent to 34,953.81. Jakarta rose while benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia declined.
TECH IN FOCUS: A tech sell-off knocked more than 600 points off the Dow on Monday. The selling snared big names including Apple, Amazon and Goldman Sachs. The tech tumble followed an analyst report that suggested Apple significantly cut back orders from one of its suppliers. That fueled questions about the outlook for tech industries and U.S. economic growth. Apple fell 5 percent after Wells Fargo analysts said the iPhone maker is the unnamed customer that optical communications company Lumentum Holdings said was significantly reducing orders. Shares in Lumentum plunged 33 percent.
US-CHINA TRADE: Markets in Shanghai and Hong gained after the South China Morning Post reported Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, Vice Premier Liu He, might visit Washington ahead of Xi’s planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said the visit is aimed at easing trade tensions but no schedule had been decided. The two sides have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods in a dispute over U.S. complaints about Beijing’s technology policy. Xi and Trump are due to meet during this month’s Group of 20 gathering of major economies in Argentina.
OPEC: The price of oil was down after Trump tweeted that he hoped Saudi Arabia and OPEC would not cut production. “Oil prices should be much lower based on supply!” That puts pressure on Saudi Arabia, which this week said the oil cartel and allied crude producers will likely need to cut supplies, perhaps by as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day. Trump has demanded OPEC increase production to drive down U.S. gasoline prices. Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday that kingdom would cut production by more than 500,000 barrels per day in December.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.26 to $58.67 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract sank 26 cents on Monday to $59.93. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost $1.28 to $68.84 in London. It declined 6 cents the previous session to $70.12.
CURRENCIES: The dollar gained 114.01 yen from Monday’s 113.84 yen. The euro rose to $1.1252 from $1.1218.