Stock market today: Asian shares mostly decline ahead of central bank meetings

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly declined in cautious trading Tuesday ahead of central bank meetings around the world.

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are holding monetary policy meetings this week.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.5% in morning trading to 38,268.72. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 decreased 0.9% to 7,915.10. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.7% to 2,747.06. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.8% to 17,093.32, while the Shanghai Composite declined 0.7% to 2,871.62.

"Markets may be having a tough time positioning the central bank meetings this week," said Jing Yi Tan of Mizuho Bank.

In Japan, the government reported the nation's unemployment rate in June stood at 2.5%, inching down from 2.6% the previous month, and marking the first improvement in five months.

U.S. stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish Monday to kick off a week full of earnings reports from Wall Street’s most influential companies and a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates.

The S&P 500 edged up 4.44 points, or 0.1%, to 5,463.54, coming off its first back-to-back weekly losses since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 49.41, or 0.1%, to 40,539.93, and the Nasdaq composite added 12.32, or 0.1%, to 17,370.20.

ON Semiconductor helped lead the market with a jump of 11.5% after the supplier to the auto and other industries reported stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. McDonald’s rose 3.7% despite reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter that fell shy of forecasts. Analysts said its performance at U.S. restaurants wasn’t as bad as some investors had feared.

They helped offset slides for oil-and-gas companies, which were some of the heaviest weights on the market after the price of oil sank back toward where it was two months ago. ConocoPhillips lost 1.6%, and Exxon Mobil slipped 1% amid worries about how much crude China’s faltering economy will burn.

Several of Wall Street’s biggest names are set to report their results later this week: Microsoft on Tuesday, Meta Platforms on Wednesday and Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Their stock movements carry extra weight on Wall Street because they are among the market’s largest by total value.

Such Big Tech stocks drove the S&P 500 to dozens of records this year, in part on investors’ frenzy around artificial intelligence technology, but they ran out of momentum this month amid criticism they have grown too expensive, and as alternatives began to look more attractive. Last week, investors found profit reports from Tesla and Alphabet underwhelming, which raised concerns that other stocks in what is known as the “Magnificent Seven” group of Big Tech stocks could also fail to impress.

“AI hype days are over,” according to Bank of America strategists led by Savita Subramanian. “Time to show monetization.”

What has helped support the U.S. stock market even as Big Tech behemoths weakened has been strength from other areas that had been beaten down by high interest rates meant to get inflation under control. Smaller stocks in particular soared on expectations that slowing inflation will get the Federal Reserve to soon begin cutting interest rates.

That pattern unwound a bit Monday, as the majority of Big Tech stocks rose while the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index decreased 1.1%. But the Russell 2000 is still up by a market-leading 9.2% for the month so far.

The Fed will hold its latest policy meeting on interest rates this week, and an announcement will come Wednesday. Virtually no one expects a move then, but the widespread expectation is that it will begin easing at its following meeting in September.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.17% from 4.19% late Friday. It was as high as 4.70% in April.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 19 cents to $75.62 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 19 cents to $79.59.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched up to 154.05 Japanese yen from 154.00. The euro cost $1.0816, down from $1.0826.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.

FILE - A person walks below an electronic stock board in Tokyo Thursday, July 25, 2024. Asian shares mostly declined in cautious trading Tuesday, July 30, ahead of central bank meetings around the world. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

FILE - Specialist Anthony Matesic works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, on July 22, 2024. World stocks started of with gains July 29, 2024 ahead of central bank policy meetings in the United States and Japan, after a broad rally on Wall Street that capped a tumultuous week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - The Fearless Girl statues faces the New York Stock Exchange on July 2, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top second from left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes 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 the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — On opposite sides of the courthouse square in Tuskegee, Alabama — a place steeped in African American history, including the city’s namesake university and World War II airmen — two opposing congressional candidates recently greeted families gathered at a county festival.

Democrat Shomari Figures, who worked in the Obama White House and as a former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, is trying to flip the seat, which was redrawn after a lengthy redistricting battle. Republican Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney and political newcomer, is attempting to keep the seat in GOP hands.

Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District was redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Alabama had likely illegally diluted the influence of Black voters when drawing congressional lines. A three-judge panel reshaped the district, which now includes places like Tuskegee, to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choosing.

The open seat has sparked a heated race for the district — which now leans Democratic, but that Republicans maintain is winnable — that could help decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Black residents now make up nearly 49% of the district's voting-age population, up from about 30% when the district was reliably Republican. The non-partisan Cook Political Report ranks the district as “likely Democrat.”

Still, both Dobson and Figures believe the race is competitive.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named Figures to its “Red to Blue” program, a slate of priority candidates they believe can flip districts from Republican control. The National Republican Congressional Committee similarly named Dobson to its list of priority candidates called the “Young Guns.”

Both candidates are lawyers under the age of 40 with young children. And both left Alabama for opportunities but have recently returned home.

But they diverge on politics.

Figures, 39, is a native of Mobile and the son of two state legislators. His late father was a legislative leader and attorney who sued the Ku Klux Klan over the 1981 murder of a Black teenager. After graduating from the University of Alabama and its law school, Figures worked for the Obama administration as domestic director of presidential personnel and then as liaison to the Department of Justice. He also served as deputy chief of staff and counselor to Garland.

During campaign stops, Figures has discussed the impact of Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid, the need to halt hospital closures in the state, support for public education and the need to bring additional resources to a district with profound infrastructure needs.

“We’ve lost three hospitals in this district since I got in this race. We have several others that are hemorrhaging, including one here in Montgomery,” Figures said in a speech.

Dobson, 37, grew up in rural Monroe County and graduated from Harvard University and Baylor Law School. A real estate attorney, she lived and practiced in Texas before moving back to Alabama.

Dobson has emphasized concerns about border security, inflation and crime — issues that she said are worries for families across the political spectrum. In a heated GOP primary runoff, she ran ads describing herself as someone “who stands tall with Donald Trump.”

“The vast majority of Alabamians in this district are very concerned about where our country is headed,” Dobson said after a Montgomery campaign stop. “They have to look at the past three-and-a-half years and who has been in charge when it comes to our open border, when it comes to our economy, inflation, the price of groceries.”

Dobson last week made a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to highlight border security. “There are impacts on crime, drugs but it’s also the open border policies are just fostering a humanitarian crisis,” Dobson said.

Figures called the trip a “photo op.” He said while immigration is an important issue that needs bipartisan cooperation, it is not the cause of pressing problems in the district.

“Illegal immigration is not the reason that 12 out of 13 counties in this district lost population last year. Illegal immigration is not the reason our kids here in the state of Alabama read at the sixth-worst level of any state,” Figures said.

The new 2nd Congressional District stretches across lower Alabama from the Mississippi border to the Georgia border. It includes part of Mobile and the capital Montgomery, and many rural counties — including parts of the state’s Black Belt, a region named for its dark fertile soil that once gave rise to cotton plantations worked by enslaved people. It also includes many white suburban and rural areas that have been GOP strongholds.

The switch to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket should benefit Figures, said Democratic pollster Zac McCrary. “Black voters are now more enthusiastic. Young voters are now more enthusiastic,” McCrary said.

On the Republican side, enthusiasm to return Trump to the White House is expected to drive turnout among GOP voters.

Ira Stallworth, a 59-year-old retired educator who met both candidates in Tuskegee, said the race has already produced something new: attention. She said the area has often been overlooked by candidates in the past when it was part of a GOP stronghold.

“We have a chance to have a district that gives us a little more voice,” Stallworth said.

U.S. flags decorate tables during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Shomari Figures greets voters during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Caroleene Dobson talks with voters during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Shomari Figures speaks during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Caroleene Dobson speaks during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Caroleene Dobson waves to the crowd as she rides in the parade during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Campaign signs for Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Democrat Shomari Figures decorate the lawn during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Caroleene Dobson talks with voters during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Shomari Figures greets voters during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

This combination of photos shows Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Caroleene Dobson, left, and Democratic candidate Shomari Figures during the Macon County Day Festival in Tuskegee, Ala., on Saturday, Aug 31, 2024. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)