BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mixed on Monday as investors watched for further developments after a U.S. court ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping higher tariffs.
U.S. markets were to remain closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sharply higher import taxes on almost every country on earth.
The ruling largely upheld a May decision by a specialized federal trade court in New York. But the 7-4 appeals court decision tossed out a part of that ruling striking down the tariffs immediately, allowing the administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
European markets opened higher, with Germany's DAX up 0.5% to 24,018.29 and the CAC 40 in Paris rising 0.4% to 7,735.88.
Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.3% to 9,212.78.
In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.2% to 25,617.42, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.5% to 3,875.53.
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding's shares traded in Hong Kong rocketed 19% higher after the company reported strong growth in its cloud computing segment and other areas including “instant commerce,” or hyper-fast deliveries at low prices. Alibaba's U.S traded shares surged 13.5% on Friday.
A government survey released Saturday showed China’s factory activity improved marginally in August, with the purchasing managers index, or PMI, issued by the National Statistics Bureau rising to 49.4 from 49.3 in July. The survey is on a scale of 0 to 100 where 50 marks the cutoff for expansion.
Another, private sector survey called the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI showed the general PMI at 50.5 last month, up from 49.4 in July. Averaging the two surveys yields a PMI of 49.9, suggesting some resilience in the manufacturing sector despite U.S. tariffs of over 50% on Chinese goods, Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary.
China and the U.S. are still negotiating over a broad trade agreement.
“The PMIs suggest that China’s economy accelerated last month, thanks to faster growth across manufacturing and services. But we don’t see much upside over the rest of the year,” Huang said.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.2% to 42,188.79, while the Kospi in South Korea shed 1.4% to 3,142.93.
Shares also fell in Australia, with the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.5% to 8,924.70.
Taiwan's benchmark lost 0.7% and India's Sensex gained 0.7%.
