The Sydney Opera House Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Thursday after stocks fell in the previous session, with mainland Chinese shares touching a near-five-year low.
Investors will be watching Australia’s unemployment numbers on Thursday for clues on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s moves in its February meeting.
Australian markets extended their losses to a fifth straight day, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 0.74% ahead of its unemployment data release.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded, up 0.29%, while the Topix rose 0.28%.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.12% and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.39%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index were flat at 15,274 compared with the HSI’s close of 15,276.9. Hong Kong stocks plunged almost 4% to hit their lowest level since November 2022 on Wednesday.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recording a third straight day of losses.
The 30-stock Dow declined 0.25%, while the S&P 500 slid 0.56% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.59%.
Retail sales data for December came in stronger than expected, indicating a resilient consumer demand and putting aggressive rate cuts from the Federal Reserve into doubt.
Retail sales were up 0.6% from November, and gained 0.4% month over month, excluding autos. Economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated a 0.4% month-on-month increase in retail sales and 0.2% ex-autos.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report
Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/18/asia-markets.html