Hong Kong Shares Muted

Hong Kong stocks were little changed in Thursday morning trade, after ending slightly lower in the prior session. The benchmark index hovered around 24,516 in a choppy session, as modest gains in property and financials were offset by weakness in tech and consumers. U.S. futures declined notably despite overnight Wall Street gains, as sentiment wavered after President Trump’s assurance that he has no plans to remove Fed Chair Powell. On the trade front, Trump said he would send a single letter to over 150 countries, outlining the tariff rates they would face and describing most as “not big countries” with limited U.S. trade ties. Locally, Hong Kong authorities intervened in currency markets for the sixth time in three weeks to prevent local currency from breaching the weak end of its trading band. Pharma stocks jumped, with Akeso Inc. surging 9.0% while Wuxi Biologics and Hansoh Pharma each rose 2.4%. Losers included Smoore Intl. (-3.3%), Mixue Group (-2.8%), and Xiaomi Corp. (-1.0%).