Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher after another set of Wall St records

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares ended mostly higher in quiet, Good Friday holiday trading, while European and U.S. markets were closed.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.5% to 40,369.44 and the Kospi in Seoul was little changed, at 2,748.55. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1% to 3,041.17.

Taiwan's Taiex advanced 0.7%. In Bangkok, the SET added 0.5%.

India’s markets were closed for Holi.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 151.35 Japanese yen from 151.38 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.0774 from $1.0790.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.1%, to its all-time high set a day before and closed at 5,254.35. It gained 10.2% in the first quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1% to 39,807.37 and likewise set a record. The Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1% to 16,379.46.

Chemours fell 9.1% despite reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave a forecast for earnings before taxes and other items in the current quarter that was below analysts’ expectations.

Also on the losing end was Trump Media & Technology Group. The company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social fell 6.4% after soaring more than 14% in each of the past two days. Its stock has shot well beyond what critics say is reasonable for the money-losing company, driven by fans of Trump and investors hoping to cash in on the mania.

The U.S. stock market has been on a nearly unstoppable run since late October, and the S&P 500 just capped its fifth straight winning month. It has leaped as the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid despite high interest rates meant to get inflation under control.

And with inflation hopefully still cooling from its peak, the Federal Reserve has indicated it will likely cut interest rates several times later this year.

The U.S. economy’s growth in the final three months of last year was stronger than earlier estimated and another report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, in the latest indications of resilience.

The hope on Wall Street is still that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting its main interest rate in June. Lower interest rates ease the pressure on the economy, while boosting prices for investments. But progress on bringing inflation down has become bumpier recently, with reports this year coming in hotter than expected.

Analysts said investors are ready to pounce on signs of a recovery in the housing market, with interest and mortgage rates expected to come down later this year.

U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.82 to $83.17 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $1.59 to $87.00 per barrel. Trading was closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday.

A currency trader watches computer monitors near the screen showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader talks near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - People walk by the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

The screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is seen at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader stands near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The screen showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won is seen at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader walks by the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has secured an additional $1.6 billion worth of shares in Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week.

Based on the company's stock hitting certain price benchmarks, Trump was awarded an additional 36 million shares in the company that owns his social media platform Truth Social. That brings his total ownership to more than 114 million shares, which based on Wednesday's closing stock price, are worth about $5.2 billion.

For now, the value of those shares is considered “paper wealth.” Trump is prohibited from selling any shares for six months after Trump Media went public without securing a waiver from the company’s board.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, now owns close to two-thirds of the company's outstanding shares.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares have surged in the past couple of weeks and closed Tuesday at $49.93. Trump only needed the stock to be above $17.50 each for 20 consecutive trading days to secure the new shares.

The stock on Wednesday tumbled 9.6%, closing at $45.13.

Trump Media got its place on the Nasdaq after merging with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. These type of mergers offer young companies quicker and easier routes to getting their shares trading publicly.

On March 26, the first day of trading after Trump Media closed the merger with Digital World Acquisition, shares in the newly combined company reached nearly $80 each in intraday trading before closing at $57.99.

Less than a week after that flashy stock market debut, Trump Media disclosed that it lost nearly $58.2 million last year, sending its stock tumbling more than 21%. The 2023 losses marked a stark decline compared with the profit of $50.5 million that the company reported for 2022, according to a regulatory filing.

In the subsequent weeks, the company's stock tumbled to around $22 each before rebounding in mid-April.

Truth Social launched in February 2022, one year after Trump was banned from major social platforms including Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He’s since been reinstated to both but has stuck with Truth Social.

Former President Donald Trump talks to reporters as leaves the courtroom following the day's proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building as the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is displayed on screens, March 26, 2024, in New York. A Delaware judge on Tuesday, April 30, granted a request by attorneys for Donald Trump and Trump Media & Technology Group, parent company of his Truth Social platform, to slow down a lawsuit filed by two cofounders of the company. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)