Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street drifted around its records

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Asian shares traded mixed on Thursday after U.S. stocks drifted near their records.

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U.S. futures edged higher, while oil prices declined.

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.2% to 51,139.48 as investors took heart as the U.S. government shutdown finally ended.

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President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks.

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“The shutdown had blocked not just spending, but also delayed a raft of federal economic data,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary, adding that “for markets, the only line that matters is simple: the lights are coming back on.”

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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.6% to 26,766.71, while the Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.4% to 4,016.24 as mainland stocks climbed ahead of updates on lending in China.

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Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 1% to 8,715.00, falling for a third straight session as hopes for near-term interest rate cuts were quashed by strong jobs data that showed unemployment falling to 4.3% in October from 4.5% in September.

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South Korea’s Kospi fluctuated between gains and losses, edging 0.1% higher to 4,154.03.

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Taiwan’s Taiex index shed earlier gains, dropping 0.1%, while India’s BSE Sensex shed 0.2%.

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On Wednesday, the S&P 500 added 0.1% to 6,850.92, near its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.7% to set a record for the second straight day, closing at 48,254.82. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3% to 23,406.46.

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Advanced Micro Devices led the market, gaining 9% after its CEO, Lisa Su, said the chip company expects better than 35% of annual compounded revenue growth over the next three to five years. She credited “accelerating AI momentum.”

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Stocks benefiting from the artificial-intelligence frenzy have been shaky recently, as investors question whether how much more they can add to already spectacular gains.

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They are one of the top reasons the U.S. market has hit records despite a slowing job market and high inflation. Their prices have shot so high, though, that critics say they’re reminiscent of the 2000 dot-com bubble, which ultimately burst and dragged the S&P 500 down by nearly half.

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Nvidia came into the day with a 4.6% drop for the month so far, for example, after its stock price more than doubled in four of the last five years. The biggest player in AI chips swung between gains and losses throughout Wednesday. Palantir Technologies, another AI darling, fell 3.6% for one of the day’s larger losses in the S&P 500.

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Similar questions about priciness are dogging the of the U.S. market, though not as pointedly as for Big Tech and AI superstars.

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In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 6 cents to $58.43 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 3 cents to $62.68 per barrel.

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The U.S. dollar rose to 154.83 Japanese yen from 154.70 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1589 from $1.1594.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.

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