Asia: Alibaba soars but markets dip

CHINESE ecommerce giant Alibaba boosted the Hang Seng on Monday, but other Asian markets mostly fell back after Wall Street retreated from record highs.

Alibaba rocketed 15 per cent following bumper results after hours on Friday, including a surge in AI revenue. Its US-listed shares soared on Friday too.

The Hang Seng was up two per cent and Shanghai edged up but other Asian indexes were in the red, with Japan’s Nikkei off two per cent as tech shares came under pressure.

Jakarta also fell more than two per cent after six people were killed in unrest over economic hardship that escalated into violent anger against police.

Seoul’s Kospi was also off even after South Korean data showed record monthly semiconductor exports in August despite growing pressure from US tariffs.

On Friday US stocks fell, with the Dow and S&P 500 retreating from record highs ahead of the long Labor Day weekend.

An acceleration of a key US inflation reading lowered prospects for sustained interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in the coming months.

Although a September cut of 25 points is probably still on the cards, “it may be hard for them to move as quickly or aggressively as they’d like, with inflation moving higher,” said eToro analyst Bret Kenwell.

German inflation rose in August for the first time this year, data showed on Friday, which could lessen the chances for further European Central Bank rate cuts too.

On tariffs, a US appeals court ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to impose wide-ranging duties.

The tariffs remained in place for now though, and hitting out at the ruling Trump said that “the United States of America will win in the end”.

Japan’s tariffs envoy cancelled a trip to Washington last week over plans for a presidential order including stepped-up Japanese purchases of US rice, the Nikkei reported. AFP