Asian stock exchanges mixed after yesterday’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ended in stalemate.
Although both confirmed progress in negotiations aimed at raising or suspending the US debt ceiling, no agreement has yet been reached.
Date X of 1 June, the one in which the United States risk defaulting in the absence of an agreement, is getting closer and closer.
After the run of the last few days, the Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo stock exchange is hit by profit taking, marking a drop of around 0.50%.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was also down by about half a percentage point, while Shanghai did worse, slipping by more than 0.80%.
The Sydney Stock Exchange is slightly above parity (+0.07%), while the Seoul Kospi is up 0.40%.
Good indications have come from Japan’s macroeconomic front:
The manufacturing PMI compiled by Jibun Bank and S&P Global rose to 50.8 points in May, compared to the previous 49.5 points, thus returning to the expansion phase.
In fact, the datum stood above the threshold of 50 points, the dividing line between the phase of contraction – values below – and expansion – values above.
The PMI for services also improved, rising to 56.3 points from the previous 55.4 points.
In the pre-market, futures on the main US stock indexes are up slightly: those on the Dow Jones are up 0.08%, those on the S&P 500 are up 0.12%, those on the Nasdaq are up 0.20% .