Global stocks were mixed Monday, with U.S. markets closed for the July 4 holiday and fresh regulatory pressure weighing on shares in Chinese technology companies.
By early afternoon Hong Kong time, the city’s Hang Seng index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 had both fallen 0.6%. Benchmarks in Australia, South Korea and Shanghai added less than 1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.2%.
Futures tied to the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq-100 each dropped slightly more than 0.1%. Key U.S. indexes had closed at record highs Friday, with the latest jobs report adding to economic optimism.
Major European stock indexes opened with muted moves. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 edged down 0.1% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was flat.
Some of the biggest moves were in Chinese tech stocks, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tech index retreating 2.3% by midafternoon. Shares in companies such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. , Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Meituan all dropped, while Japan’s SoftBank Group —a keen backer of Chinese technology companies—shed 5.4%.
