Wall Street retreats from records after the Dow Jones briefly surpassed 40,000 points

Asian stocks fell on Friday after US stocks fell from record levels, despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average It briefly exceeded 40,000 for the first time.

US futures fell and oil prices rose.

Chinese stocks witnessed little change after officials in Beijing announced continued weakness in the economy, especially in the real estate sector. The government plans to announce revised real estate policies to revive the sector later on Friday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.1% to 19,396.14 points, and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.1% to 3,119.49 points.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4% to 38,782.08, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6% to 7,832.90.

South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.9% to 2,727.13 points.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 39,869.38. The S&P 500, which is widely followed on Wall Street, fell 0.2% to 5,297.10, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% to 16,698.32. On Wednesday, the three indices rose to their highest levels ever.

Deere weighed on the market, falling 4.7% despite reporting stronger fourth-quarter earnings than expected. He. She It lowered its forecast for upcoming earnings This fiscal year is lower than analysts’ estimates, as farmers are buying fewer tractors and other equipment.

Homebuilders also helped drag the market down after a weaker-than-expected report on the housing industry. They gave up some of their big gains from the day before, when hopes for lower mortgage interest rates sent them sharply higher. DR Horton fell 4.2%, Lennar fell 3.3%, and PulteGroup fell 2.8%.

GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which fell for the second day in a row, also sank Jaw starts in a week. GameStop stock is down 30%, though it’s still up about 59% for the week so far. AMC Entertainment lost 15.3%.

AP correspondent Seth Sutel provides insightful reporting on AP Markets, with a positive start to the day.

Such declines helped offset Walmart’s 7% jump, which… You reported stronger gain for the fourth quarter than analysts expected. The retailer also said its revenue for the year could exceed the forecast range it previously provided.

Walmart’s strength could be an encouraging sign for the broader economy. Concerns have been growing about whether American households can keep up with still-high inflation and more expensive credit card payments, especially families living in the United States. The lower end of the income spectrum.

Chubb shares later rose 4.7% Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed She has built up an ownership stake in the insurance company.

Stronger-than-expected earnings reports were one of the main reasons why US stock indices jumped broadly during May to record levels after a difficult April. Other hopes have been revived that the Federal Reserve can cut its key interest rate at least once this year. The Fed keeps the federal funds rate at the highest level in more than two decades.

A series of worse than expected Reports on inflation At the beginning of the year, it jeopardized the possibility of such cuts, but some More encouraging data He has since arrived.

Treasury yields fell considerably in May as hopes rose that the economy would reach the hoped-for sweet spot, cooling enough due to higher interest rates to stifle inflation but not so much as to cause a bad recession.

Yields rose on Thursday after some mixed data on the economy, including a report that hurt homebuilder stocks, which showed the industry had started on fewer projects than expected.

One report showed a little more The workers filed for unemployment Benefits last week were higher than economists had expected, although the number is still low compared to history. Others said manufacturing growth in the Mid-Atlantic region was weaker than hoped and that import prices rose more than expected.

In other trading, the price of benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 2 cents to $79.25 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 15 cents to $83.42 a barrel.

The US dollar rose to 155.84 Japanese yen from 155.40 yen. The euro fell to $1.0859 from $1.0868.