Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher as S&P 500 nears the 5,000 level for the 1st time
ABC News
Share are mostly higher in Asia after the S&P 500 neared the 5,000 level for the first time
BANGKOK -- Share were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after the S&P 500 neared the 5,000 level for the first time.
Hong Kong’s benchmark fell while Shanghai advanced after China replaced its top stock market regulator. Tokyo surged 2% on strong corporate earnings.
Beijing has been struggling to prop up what have been some of the world's worst-performing markets this year. Late Wednesday, China's top stock regulator was replaced by a former chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange as part of those efforts.
Wu Qing, also a former banker and ex-vice mayor of Shanghai, has been dubbed the “broker butcher,” analysts say, due to his record for cracking down on market abuses such as insider trading.
The announcement that Yi Huiman was being dismissed from his post as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission came without any explanation. But the ruling Communist Party may have chosen him as a way of signaling its resolve to protect smaller investors who have taken a drubbing in the recent sell-offs.
