Regular Edition · Mon 26 Oct 2026
Stocks
Asian Markets Open Cautiously as Wall Street Futures Edge Higher Ahead of Earnings
Asian shares started the week cautiously while U.S. futures edged up, ahead of a week packed with central bank meetings and megacap earnings.
Not investment advice: this article is for information only.
Chanan Zevin - Chief Editor and Head of Desks
Published
The open
Reuters reported that Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.8% after losing 4.0% last week, while South Korean shares fell 0.4%, having shed almost 19% so far this month. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng opened 0.28% higher at 23,156, RTHK reported, while the Shanghai Composite opened down 0.53%.
Futures
S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures both edged up 0.2%, and EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 0.2%, according to Reuters.
The AI test
About one-third of S&P 500 companies report this week, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. Bloomberg, via The Economic Times, said about 550 of the roughly 1,200 companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index are due to report, and that Goldman Sachs strategists cut their Kospi target by 25% as concerns over the AI trade intensify.
Sources
- Reuters via Euronext, 'Asian shares make cautious start, Brent eases from six-month high', 26 October 2026 · live.euronext.com
- RTHK (AFP/Xinhua), 'HK rises as region slips ahead of key tech earnings', 26 October 2026 · news.rthk.hk
- Bloomberg via The Economic Times, 'Asian shares slip as AI jitters deepen ahead of big tech earnings', 26 October 2026 · m.economictimes.com