ASX slips as Wall Street drifts; Ford Motor falls

They helped offset a 7.5 per cent drop for Ford Motor, which fell even though the automaker delivered a stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on Ford’s financial forecasts for 2025, which the company said incorporates “headwinds related to market factors.”

The company gave a forecasted range for how much cash it will generate this year whose midpoint fell below analysts’ expectations, for example.

Qualcomm also kept indexes in check after falling 3.7 per cent. The company, whose products help power smartphones and other devices, reported profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ forecasts, and analysts called the performance solid. But they also said expectations were high, and worries are rising about the broader wireless chip industry.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said more US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than expected, though the number remains low compared with history. A more comprehensive report will arrive on Friday, showing how many jobs US employers added during January.

The hope is Friday’s data will show a job market that remains solid enough to keep worries about a possible downturn at bay but not so strong that it pushes upward on inflation. The US economy has remained much more solid than critics feared, but pressure is rising in part because of the threat of potential tariffs coming from President Donald Trump.

After rocking financial markets around the world at the start of this week, worries about a potentially punishing global trade war have eased a bit after Trump gave 30-day reprieves for tariffs on both Mexico and Canada.

While discussing Ford Motor’s earnings and financial forecasts, CEO Jim Farley said his company can manage a “few weeks” of tariffs of 25 per cent on Canadian and Mexican imports. But if they’re protracted, they would have “a huge impact on our industry,” resulting in higher prices for customers, losses of US jobs and the elimination of billions of dollars of industry profits.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, another company reliant on spending by consumers around the world, Ralph Lauren, rallied 9.7 per cent after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. Growth was particularly strong in China, where the company recently opened stores in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Eli Lilly rose 3.3 per cent after the drugmaker showed how demand for its hot-selling diabetes and obesity treatments is swelling its profits.

Honeywell fell 5.6 per cent and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. It announced it will split into three independent, publicly traded companies, following in the footsteps of other conglomerates such as General Electric.

The North Carolina company, one of the few existing US conglomerates, expects to complete the spin-off of its automation and aerospace technologies businesses sometime in late 2026.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 22.09 points to 6,083.57. The Dow Jones dropped 125.65 to 44,747.63, and the Nasdaq composite rose 99.66 to 19,791.99.

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.2 per cent after the Bank of England cut its main interest rate as it slashed its forecast for economic growth. The British economy has barely grown over the past six months.

Stock indexes also rose 1.5 per cent in Paris, 1.4 per cent in Hong Kong and 0.6 per cent in Tokyo.

In Japan, Honda Motor Co. fell, and Nissan Motor Corp. rose after Japanese media said they were ditching their talks to set up a joint holding company. Neither company confirmed the report. An update on the talks is expected by mid-February, but no date has been set.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.43 per cent, where it was late on Wednesday.

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