Stock market today: Asian stocks are mixed after Wall Street edges to more records

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed on Wednesday after U.S. benchmarks ticked to more records following the latest signs that the U.S. economy may be slowing without falling into recession.

U.S. futures were mixed and oil prices were little changed.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.2% to 38,575.54 as Japan’s trade data for May showed exports rose 13.5% while imports were up 9.5% from a year earlier, pushed higher by rising prices and the weaker value of the yen against the U.S. dollar.

Minutes from the Bank of Japan's latest policy meeting disclosed a debate among its decision makers over whether the yen's weakness may push inflation still higher. Governor Kazuo Ueda has hinted at raising the benchmark interest rate in coming months, depending on economic data at the time.

“Moves in the Nikkei have reflected much indecision in place, with the index trading in a broad consolidation phase thus far,” IG Asia said in a commentary.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 2% to 18,264.51 while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,020.03 after the head of China’s securities watchdog said at a financial forum in Shanghai that the agency would be enhancing oversight of all financial activities to prevent potential risks.

In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% lower to 7,764.30. South Korea’s Kospi surged 1% to 2,792.14.

Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex gained 1.8%, while Bangkok’s SET fell 0.1%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 added 0.3% to 5,487.03, setting an all-time high for the 31st time this year. The Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1% to 17,862.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% to 38,834.86.

Nvidia once again was the star, gaining 3.5% and acting as the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward. It lifted its total market value further above $3 trillion, again.

Nvidia’s chips are helping to develop AI, which proponents expect to change the world as much or more than the internet, and demand for its chips has proven to be shockingly voracious. Nvidia’s revenue routinely triples every quarter, and its profit is rocketing at even more breathtaking rates. Its stock is up nearly 174% this year, and Nvidia alone was responsible for nearly a third of the S&P 500’s entire gain for the year through May.

Of course, a potential danger of having a handful of superstars responsible for most of the U.S. stock market’s run to records is a more fragile market. If more stocks were participating, it could be a signal of a healthier market.

The Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.1% in May, below the pace that economists projected, while April sales were revised downward — a 0.2% decline, from unchanged. Sales rose 0.6% in March and 0.9% in February. That comes after sales fell 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather.

The weaker-than-expected data could be a warning signal that the main engine of the U.S. economy, spending by households, is cracking. Inflation is still high, even if it’s slowed since its peak, and lower-income households in particular are struggling to keep up with the more expensive prices.

Still, a survey of global fund managers by Bank of America showed they’re the most optimistic about stocks since the autumn of 2021, with relatively little hiding out in cash and allocations heavy to stocks. Fewer managers are also calling for a “hard landing” where the economy tumbles into a bad recession.

In other dealings early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was unchanged at $80.71 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude rose 2 cents to $85.35 per barrel.

The dollar rose to 157.87 Japanese yen from 156.87 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0737 from $1.0740.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.

The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 in New York. Shares are mostly higher in Europe and Asia after U.S. stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

FILE - Trader William Lovesick, right works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, June 12, 2024. Shares have opened mixed in Europe on Monday, June 17, 2024, as markets recovered from shocks of recent elections across the region. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

A person walks in the rain in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Tokyo. Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in the rain in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Tokyo. Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands in the rain in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Tokyo. Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as authorities made more arrests in a failed coup that shook the economically troubled country a day earlier.

Bolivia’s government announced that a total of 17 people had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attempted government takeover, including the army chief, Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, and former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, who were taken into custody the day before.

The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn on the government of President Luis Arce, seizing control of the capital’s main square with armored vehicles, repeatedly crashing a small tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas on protesters.

Senior Cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo did not elaborate on the other 15 people who were arrested, except to identify one civilian, Aníbal Aguilar Gómez, as a key “ideologue” of the thwarted coup. He said the alleged conspirators began plotting in May.

Riot police guarded the palace doors and Arce — who has struggled to manage the country's shortages of foreign currency and fuel — emerged on the presidential balcony as his supporters surged into the streets singing the national anthem and cheering as fireworks exploded overhead. “No one can take democracy away from us,” he roared.

Bolivians responded by chanting, “Lucho, you are not alone!" Lucho, a common nickname for Luis, also means “fight” as a Spanish verb.

Analysts say the eruption of public support for Arce, even if fleeting, provides him with a reprieve from the country’s economic quagmire and political turmoil. The president is locked in a deepening rivalry with popular former President Evo Morales, his erstwhile ally who has threatened to challenge Arce in 2025.

“The president’s management has been very bad, there are no dollars, there is no petrol,” said La Paz-based political analyst Paul Coca. “Yesterday’s military move is going to help his image a bit, but it’s no solution.”

Some protesters gathered outside the police station where the former army general was being detained, shouting that he should go to jail. “It’s a shame what Zúñiga did,” said 47-year-old Dora Quispe, one of the demonstrators. “We are in a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

Before his arrest late Wednesday, Zúñiga alleged without providing evidence that Arce had ordered the general to carry out the coup attempt in a ruse to boost the president’s popularity. That fueled speculation about what really happened. Opposition senators and government critics joined the chorus, calling the mutiny a “self-coup" — a claim strongly denied by Arce's government.

Some Bolivians said they believed Gen. Zúñiga's allegations.

“They are playing with the intelligence of the people, because nobody believes that it was a real coup,” said 48-year-old lawyer Evaristo Mamani.

Lawmakers and former officials, particularly those allied with Morales, echoed the allegations. “This has been a setup,” said Carlos Romero, a former official in the Morales government. “Zúñiga followed the script as he was ordered."

Soon after the military maneuver was underway, it became clear that any attempted takeover had no meaningful political support. The rebellion passed bloodlessly at the end of the business day. In an extraordinary scene, Arce argued viciously with Zúñiga and his allies face-to-face in the plaza outside the palace before returning inside to name a new army commander.

Speaking in Paraguay on Thursday, U.S. deputy secretary of state for management, Rich Verma, condemned Zúñiga, saying that “democracy remains fragile in our hemisphere.”

The short-lived mutiny followed months of mounting tensions between Arce and Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president. Morales has staged a dramatic political comeback since mass protests and a deadly crackdown prompted him to resign and flee in 2019 — a military-backed ouster that his supporters decry as a coup.

Morales has vowed to run against Arce in 2025, a prospect that has rattled Arce, whose popularity has plunged as the country’s foreign currency reserves dwindle, its natural gas exports plummet and its currency peg to the U.S. dollar collapses.

Morales’ allies in Congress have made it almost impossible for Arce to govern. The cash crunch has ramped up pressure on Arce to scrap food and fuel subsidies that depleted state finances.

Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo told reporters that Zuñiga's coup attempt had its roots in a private meeting Tuesday in which Arce sacked Zuñiga over the army chief’s threats on national TV to arrest Morales if he proceeded to join the 2025 race.

But Zuñiga gave officials no indication he was preparing to seize power, Novillo said.

"He admitted that he had committed some excesses,” he said of Zuñiga. “We said goodbye in the most friendly way, with hugs. Zuñiga said that he would always be at the side of the president.”

Hours later, panic gripped the capital of La Paz. Tailed by armored vehicles and supporters, Zuñiga burst into government headquarters, sending Bolivians into a frenzy. Crowds thronged ATMs, lined up outside gas stations and ransacked grocery stores.

The country’s fragmented opposition rejected the coup even before it was clear it had failed. Former interim President Jeanine Áñez, detained for her role in Morales’ 2019 ouster, said that soldiers sought to “destroy the constitutional order," but appealed to both Arce and Morales not to run in the 2025 elections.

In his speech after storming the palace, Zúñiga had called for the release of political prisoners including Áñez and powerful Santa Cruz Gov. Luis Fernando Camacho, also detained for allegedly orchestrating a coup in 2019.

Before being arrested, Zúñiga told reporters that Arce had asked him directly to storm the palace and bring armored vehicles into downtown La Paz.

“The president told me: ‘The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity,’” Zúñiga alleged.

Even if proven false, accusations of Arce's involvement have stoked confusion and threatened more chaos.

“Was it a media spectacle put on by the government itself, as General Zúñiga says? Was it just some military madness? Was it simply another example of lack of control?” Camacho wrote on social media platform X.

Bolivian officials have insisted the general was lying to justify his actions. Prosecutors said they would seek the maximum sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for Zúñiga on charges of “attacking the constitution.”

Political experts and Bolivians alike have struggled to make sense of Wednesday's turmoil.

“This is the weirdest coup attempt I have ever seen,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based research group. “Bolivia’s democracy remains very fragile, and definitely a great deal more fragile today than it was yesterday.”

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

People arrested in connection with the previous day's uprising are presented by the police to the press in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. The government announced more arrests over their alleged involvement in what President Luis Arce called a coup attempt. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Police guard the government palace the day after a now-ousted Bolivian army chief led some soldiers to storm the building in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. The rebellion was short-lived as authorities arrested the general and his soldiers retreated. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A supporter of Bolivian President Luis Arce raises a clenched fist in front of the government palace in Plaza Murillo, in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Arce addressed supporters who gathered in Plaza Murillo, after Wednesday’s apparent failed coup attempt. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Supporters of Bolivian President Luis Arce crowd into Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Armored vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia's government palace located in Plaza Murillo, in an apparent coup attempt on Wednesday against Arce, but he vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Military police block entry to Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of government palace located in Plaza Murillo, on Wednesday, as President Luis Arce said the country faced an attempted coup. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Alicia Chura, a supporter of Bolivian President Luis Arce, shouts against Juan Jose Zuniga, a former top Army general who led some soldiers to storm the presidential palace, outside police offices in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. The rebellion was short-lived as authorities arrested Zuniga and his soldiers retreated. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivian President Luis Arce raises a clenched fist surrounded by supporters and media, outside the government palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Armored vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia's government palace Wednesday in an apparent coup attempt against Arce, but he vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

An armored vehicle and military police form outside the government palace at Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia's government palace Wednesday as President Luis Arce said the country faced an attempted coup. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Police guard the government palace the day after a former top Army general led some soldiers to storm the building in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. The rebellion was short-lived as authorities arrested the general and his soldiers retreated. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivian police hold the detained Juan Jose Zuniga, former general commander of the Army, in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. An apparent failed coup attempt erupted Wednesday in the country, and Zuniga appeared to be leading the rebellion. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Army Cmdr. Gen. Juan Jose Zuniga sits inside an armored vehicle at Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia's government palace Wednesday as President Luis Arce said the country faced an attempted coup. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Supporters of Bolivian President Luis Arce protest against Juan Jose Zuniga, a former top Army general who led some soldiers to storm the presidential palace, outside police offices in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, June 27, 2024. The signs read in Spanish, left, "No to the coup. Respect democracy!" and "Yes to democracy! Jail the coup plotters." Authorities arrested Zuniga and his soldiers retreated the previous day. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)