Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed after gains on Wall Street

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday after stocks advanced on Wall Street and yields jumped in the U.S. bond market as election-related issues swayed markets worldwide.

U.S. futures fell and oil prices rose. The Japanese yen fell to near a fresh 38-year low, reaching 161.66 yen to the dollar early Tuesday.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.1% to 40,062.42, as the weaker yen spurred buying of export-oriented shares.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4% to 7,719.30. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.9% to 2,778.32 despite data from Statistics Korea showing the country’s consumer inflation slowed to an 11-month low in June.

Hong Kong's market was higher after a holiday break on Monday. The Hang Seng climbed 0.6% to 17,819.50 and the Shanghai Composite index edged was nearly unchanged at 2,995.78.

Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.6%, while the SET in Bangkok was 0.6% lower.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 5,475.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1% to 39,169.52, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to 17,879.30.

Some of the world’s strongest action was across the Atlantic, where the CAC 40 index in Paris jumped as much as 2.8% before settling to a gain of 1.1%. Results from France suggested a far-right political party may not win a decisive majority in the country’s legislative elections. That bolstered hopes for potential gridlock in the French government, which would prevent a worst-case scenario where a far-right with a clear majority could push policies that would greatly increase the French government’s debt.

This is a big year for elections worldwide, with voters heading to the polls in the United Kingdom later this week and soon elsewhere. In the United States, pollsters are measuring the fallout from last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Investors are also eyeing the potential impact from a Supreme Court ruling Monday that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, likely extending the delay in a criminal case against Donald Trump to after the November election.

Trump Media & Technology Group, whose stock has been rising and falling with Trump’s White House chances, climbed 1% to $33.08. Shares of the company behind Trump’s Truth Social platform, though, are still well below their perch of roughly $70 reached earlier this year.

Treasury yields jumped, as they did Friday immediately following the Biden-Trump debate. Increased prospects for a Republican sweep in November sent traders back to moves from 2016, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley. Besides pushing rates higher, traders also piled into stocks of energy and financial companies.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.46% from 4.39% late Friday and from 4.29% late Thursday. It’s a reversal of the general trend since the spring, when the 10-year Treasury yield had topped 4.70% in late April.

Yields had been largely easing on hopes inflation will slow enough to convince the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate later this year, down from the highest level in more than two decades. High rates have been grinding on the U.S. economy by making it more expensive to borrow money for a house, car or anything else.

Hopes for rate cuts held after a report on Monday showed U.S. manufacturing weakened last month by more than economists expected. Perhaps even more importantly for Wall Street, the report from the Institute for Supply Management also said price increases are decelerating. Taken together, the data could offer more of the evidence that the Federal Reserve wants to see of lessening pressure on inflation before it will cut rates.

This week’s economic highlight will likely arrive Friday, when the U.S. government will say how many workers employers hired during June. Economists predict overall hiring slowed to 190,000 from May’s 272,000. That would get the number closer to what Bank of America calls the “Goldilocks” figure of roughly 150,000, give or take 25,000.

At that level, the U.S. economy could continue to grow and avoid a recession without being so strong that it puts too much upward pressure on inflation.

In other dealings, benchmark U.S. crude rose 12 cents to $83.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, added 19 cents to $86.79 a barrel.

The euro cost $1.0731, down from $1.0738.

FILE - A man walking on Wall Street approaches the New York Stock Exchange, right, on June 26, 2024, in New York. Shares advanced in Europe on July 1, 2024, with the benchmark in Paris up 2.8% briefly after the far-right National Rally gained a strong lead in first-round legislative elections. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

File - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on May 28, 2024, in New York. Global shares have advanced on Friday, June 28, 2024, as traders look ahead to a key report on inflation that could influence the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rates at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader walks by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders walk by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders describes President Joe Biden's recent debate performance as “painful.” In an interview, he says he's not confident that Biden can win this fall.

But the progressive senator from Vermont does not want Biden to step aside.

Instead, Sanders, who served as Biden's chief rival in the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination fight, is calling on voters to adopt “a maturity” as they view their options this fall.

“A presidential election is not a Grammy Award contest for the best singer or entertainer. It’s about who has the best policies that impact our lives," Sanders said. “I'm going to do everything I can to see that Biden gets reelected.”

That's putting the best face on it. Nearly a week after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, there is a growing sense among concerned Democrats that the party has trapped itself in a bad situation with no clear solution, caught in a primary process set up to protect Biden with elected officials unwilling to say out loud what some say quietly.

Some allies, like Sanders, are acknowledging Biden's problems but contrasting his policies and record with those of Republican Donald Trump. But many donors, strategists and party insiders want Biden to suspend his reelection campaign to avoid what they see as certain defeat come November.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas on Tuesday became the first House Democrat to call for the president to withdraw, saying “too much is at stake” for Biden to stay in the race and lose to Trump.

“He has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process,” Doggett said in a written statement. “My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved.”

In private, people close to would-be Biden replacements — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Vice President Kamala Harris — are having informal conversations about potential next steps should Biden abruptly change course and step aside.

Such conversations include talk of potential running mates, according to donors involved in the discussions. Names of potential vice presidential nominees that have surfaced include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and California Rep. Ro Khanna.

Every one of the officials on such lists has publicly pledged support for Biden in recent days. And ever defiant, Biden’s team has downplayed the president’s political problems in a series of memos and private meetings with donors, strategists and party insiders.

“The voters are powerless,” said Nina Turner, a national co-chair of Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, who now fears the Democratic Party cannot win again with Biden as the nominee. “The decision rests solely with him.”

Amid such frustration, key groups in Biden's political coalition — who had shown signs of fraying even before the debate — have begun to turn against each other.

Tim Miller, a prominent Biden supporter who once worked for Republican political campaigns, has come under attack in recent days from pro-Biden activists. They posted pictures of his family on social media after he raised concerns about Biden's general election prospects.

In an interview, however, Miller said that elected Democrats privately tell him that they share his concerns.

"For me, the only risk right now is everyone shutting up and getting in line," Miller said. “It's the right time to have an open conversation about what the path forward is. Otherwise, we’re on a trajectory for another Donald Trump presidency.”

A handful of leading Republicans from the “Never Trump” camp met privately with Biden campaign officials on Monday to encourage the president to leave the race.

The Biden campaign issued a memo over the weekend claiming he had lost little support after the debate. A separate internal memo also argued that he would retain the support of many voters who had a negative reaction to his primetime performance.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS after the debate found that Biden’s favorability rating hasn’t shifted meaningfully, nor has the share of Americans who say they will vote for him in November. However, three-quarters of U.S. voters — and more than half of Democratic voters — say the Democratic Party would have a better chance of winning the presidency with someone else at the top of the ticket.

At the same time, the president's campaign announced on Tuesday a massive fundraising haul for the month of June. Overall, the campaign raised $127 million last month, including $33 million on the day of the debate and in its aftermath, according to the campaign. The numbers cannot be verified until federal filings are posted later in the month.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison also made clear on Tuesday that the party's rules leave no room for a Plan B.

Biden secured almost every delegate in the state-by-state primary process this spring. They are pledged by party rules to “in all good conscience” reflect the desires of voters who chose Biden. A virtual roll call vote to formalize Biden's status as the nominee is expected weeks before the party's national convention.

“The primary is over, and in every state, the will of Democratic voters was clear: Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president," Harrison told The Associated Press. "Delegates are pledged to reflect voters’ sentiment, and over 99% of delegates are already pledged to Joe Biden headed into our convention.”

But Biden's allies in key states across the country acknowledge the fear spreading through their party ranks.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said she's worked to calm concerns about Biden's mental acuity by sharing her personal experiences.

“I have been in close-quarter meetings and conversations and interactions with the president where we’re able to talk high policy initiatives but also been able to just have a general conversation, like you’re talking to your neighbor,” Fried said. "There’s never been a time that I have questioned his abilities to run this country and to put forth the type of energy and coalition that will be necessary to win in November.”

Michigan Democratic Party chairwoman Levona Barnes said she spoke with volunteers Monday night and “yes they asked questions” about Biden’s debate performance. But “we need to focus our talks with our voters on the work that the president’s done in contrast with Donald Trump," she said.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch conceded that Biden's debate performance intensified questions about the president's age, which are on the minds of “everyday voters” and even “extremely energetic Biden supporters."

“Within the Biden campaign they’re acutely aware of it,” Welch said in an interview. “I thought it was a mistake for the Biden campaign to be critical of people who started asking questions the campaign itself is asking.”

Meanwhile, Vermont's other senator, Sanders, conceded that Biden's path to reelection will not be easy.

“I wasn’t confident he could win before the debate,” Sanders told The AP. “What we need on the part of the American people is a maturity right now — and that is to understand that what is important are the issues. And the difference between Trump and Biden: day and night.”

Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden listens during a visit to the D.C. Emergency Operations Center, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)