Australia

Australian shares are set to edge higher in opening trade, even as Wall Street fell on the back of falling tech stocks.

ASX futures were up 21 points or 0.3% at 6820 as of 7:00am on Thursday, pointing to a gain at the open.

Falling tech stocks dragged the S&P 500 lower Wednesday after disappointing earnings reports from Google's parent company and Microsoft. The broad US stock index fell 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1%, or about 3 points.

Stocks had gotten a boost in recent days, lifted by some better-than-expected corporate earnings and hopes that the Federal Reserve may reduce the pace of interest-rate increases. The rally propelled the Dow industrials to a six-week high on Tuesday.

But sentiment took a U-turn after Alphabet and Microsoft reported their quarterly results on Tuesday once markets closed. The lackluster reports from two of the market's most influential stocks exacerbated concerns about slowing economic growth.

"These companies are really important bellwethers on advertising and on flows of goods and services," said Fahad Kamal, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros. "If advertising growth is slowing over there, it is adding weight to that fear of an earnings slowdown."

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil jumped 2.54% to $US95.9 a barrel, gold edged up 0.7% to US$ 1,664.62.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds dropped to 3.37% while the 10 Year fell to 3.91%. Overseas, the yield on 2 Year US Treasury notes rose to 4.52% and the yield on the 10 Year US Treasury notes was up at 4.01%.

The Australian dollar hit 64.89 US cents up from the previous close of 63.91. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies edged down to 102.3.

Asia

Chinese shares ended higher, with the Shanghai benchmark index reclaiming the key 3000 level during the session as sentiment was buoyed by expectations that Beijing might gradually loosen Covid curbs in the wake of the Party Congress. Shares of daily necessities producers and travel-related companies helped push the market higher. The Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.8% higher at 2999.05, the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.8% and the ChiNext Price Index added 2.5%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 1.0% higher at 15317.67, snapping a five-session losing streak, supported by gains among pharmaceutical companies and rebounding technology stocks. Alibaba Health rose 8.8% after a positive profit alert, while Hansoh Pharma and CSPC Pharma each added more than 5%. Chinese tech companies broadly recovered after a sharp selloff earlier this week. Meituan and Tencent Holdings were 5.0% and 2.5% higher, respectively, while Alibaba Group weakened 2.0%. Standard Chartered climbed 2.7% after reporting a 32% increase in 3Q profit that beat estimates. Among losers, China Resources Beer declined 6.0% after its plans to acquire a liquor maker, while WH Group lost 5.3% following a drop in 3Q profit.

Europe

European stocks rose as gains for mining, construction and industrial stocks offset losses for banks and brewers. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 advanced 0.7%, in London the FTSE 100 climbed 0.6%, the French CAC 40 increased 0.4% and the German DAX jumped 1.1%.

Antofagasta, Anglo American, Skanska and Thyssenkrupp are among the biggest pan-European risers while Heineken, Carlsberg, Standard Chartered and Banco Santander are among the biggest fallers.

Stocks got a boost from the Bank of Canada's smaller-than-expected rise in interest rates, CMC Markets says. "It's got markets asking whether the Fed could follow suit next week after another poor set of US housing numbers," CMC analyst Michael Hewson writes.

North America

Falling tech stocks dragged the S&P 500 lower Wednesday after disappointing earnings reports from Google's parent company and Microsoft. The broad US stock index fell 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1%, or about 3 points.

Stocks had gotten a boost in recent days, lifted by some better-than-expected corporate earnings and hopes that the Federal Reserve may reduce the pace of interest-rate increases. The rally propelled the Dow industrials to a six-week high on Tuesday.

But sentiment took a U-turn after Alphabet and Microsoft reported their quarterly results on Tuesday once markets closed. The lackluster reports from two of the market's most influential stocks exacerbated concerns about slowing economic growth.

"These companies are really important bellwethers on advertising and on flows of goods and services," said Fahad Kamal, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros. "If advertising growth is slowing over there, it is adding weight to that fear of an earnings slowdown."

Microsoft and Alphabet are among the most heavily-weighted stocks in the S&P 500 because of their large market values, so declines in the shares have an outsize influence on the broad index's moves.

Shares of Alphabet were recently down 9.1%, on pace for their worst day since March 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The company's revenue growth last quarter dropped to the lowest level in more than two years and its YouTube video platform posted a drop in advertising sales for the first time.

Microsoft shares, meanwhile, declined 7.7% after the company reported its weakest revenue growth in more than five years and said it expects a sharp decline in personal computer sales.

"We've gotten used to tech being strong in every single quarter. There was hope that they would be so sharp that it would be another signal that tech is resilient," said Esty Dwek, chief investment officer at FlowBank.

Still, six of the S&P 500's 11 sectors advanced, suggesting investors are holding on to the bullishness of recent days. The energy and healthcare segments were recently up more than 1% in daily trading, while the consumer staples, financials, materials and industrials groups also rose.

One factor contributing to the optimistic outlook: With the S&P 500 down 20% this year, stocks look less expensive than they have during much of the Covid-19 pandemic. That suggests better potential returns going forward.

The S&P 500 traded Tuesday at 16.6 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months, down from 21.5 times at the end of last year, according to FactSet.

"We're not at slam-dunk valuation levels yet but we're in a much better place now than we were at the beginning of the year," said Andy Braun, senior portfolio manager at Impax Asset Management.

Among other individual stocks, shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill dropped 6.8% after the burrito chain said inflation is wearing on some consumers. Boeing shares fell 8.7% after the aerospace giant said its losses deepened in the third quarter, in part because of problems with its defense business.

Hess shares, meanwhile, rose 4.8% after the oil and natural gas company raised its production forecast for the year.