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Asian shares traded unevenly Friday in thin holiday-season markets, while oil prices retreated after recent advances.
U.S. stock futures edged upward.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 0.8% to 68,512.30 in Tokyo.
The Shanghai Composite fell 1.4% to 3,758.47, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 1.1% to 24,046.79.
China is scheduled to publish its latest economic growth data next week.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6%.
Stock markets in South Korea and Taiwan were closed.
U.S. stocks struggled for direction Thursday as oil prices climbed and bond yields surged before easing later in the session.
“Equities remain within striking distance of record highs, but the backdrop has turned considerably less hospitable,” Steven Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary.
The S&P 500 lost 0.5%, extending its decline to a second consecutive session after reaching a record high the previous day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.3% as technology shares came under particularly heavy pressure.
Stocks were pressured by a 4.1% jump in Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, to $104.28 a barrel. Brent has swung between $96 and almost $110 over the past month as investors weigh how long the war with Iran could disrupt the global energy industry.
Brent briefly approached $106 in morning trading before President Donald Trump sent prices lower by saying that “productive discussions” were taking place with Iran. He also said the U.S. military would not attack Iran before the U.S. elections in November.
By early Friday, Brent was down 1% at $103.28 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude also fell 0.9% to $90.23.
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In bond markets, yields remain near their highest levels in years, and in some cases decades, raising concerns that elevated borrowing costs could weigh on economic growth.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note initially climbed to 5.35% early Thursday before retreating to 5.23%.
Yields moved lower after the U.S. government sold $22 billion in 30-year Treasury bonds at an auction with a high yield below 5.62%. The result pushed the 30-year Treasury yield down to 5.60% from 5.73% earlier in the morning, a significant move in the bond market.
Investors are also watching high debt levels after the U.S. federal deficit reached nearly $2 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Among individual stocks, PepsiCo advanced 3.7% after reporting quarterly profit and revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations. Gains in the consumer-goods company, however, were outweighed by declines in several major technology stocks.
Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of the artificial-intelligence boom, fell 2.9%. As Wall Street’s largest company by market value, Nvidia exerted the biggest drag on the S&P 500 despite steeper percentage declines elsewhere.
Other AI-linked stocks also retreated. Broadcom dropped 4.3%, while Micron Technology slumped 4.8%.
AI stocks are under heavy pressure to report big growth to justify how expensive their shares have gotten due to the AI frenzy.
“What was once a broad, buy-anything-with-an-AI-label momentum trade is becoming a much tougher contest between balance-sheet strength and ambition,” Innes said.
In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.01 Japanese yen from 157.89 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1225, up from $1.1211.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.
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