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Asia-Pacific markets closed mostly lower Wednesday, tracking Wall Street declines overnight, as investors parsed Japan’s trade data and China’s loan prime rate decision.
Japan’s exports dropped 2.6% year over year in July, notching their steepest drop in over four years. The fall was sharper than the 2.1% contraction forecast in a Reuters poll and compared with a 0.5% decline in June.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.51% to close at 42,888.55, while the Topix lost 0.57% to 3,098.91. Shares of SoftBank Group plunged as much as 9.17% Wednesday, as technology stocks in Asia declined, tracking losses in U.S. peers overnight.
The Japanese tech-focused investment firm saw shares drop for a second consecutive session, following its announcement of a $2 billion investment in Intel. Intel shares rose 6.97% to close at $25.31 Tuesday stateside.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.68% to close at 3,130.09, and the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.31% to 777.61. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 pared losses earlier in the trading session to close 0.25% higher at 8,918.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also reversed course to rise 0.21% in its last hour of trading, while the mainland’s CSI 300 rose 1.14% to close at 4,271.4, after China left its key lending rates steady in August for a third straight month, matching market forecasts. Taiwan’s Taiex fell 2.99% to close at 23,625.44.
Shares in Chinese toymaker Pop Mart reversed course to rise Wednesday, a day after the company posted a near-400% surge in net profit, driven by booming global demand for its Labubu dolls.
Pop Mart was trading above 8% as of 11.47 a.m. local time (11:47 p.m. ET Tuesday), after dropping as much as 4.7% at the start of the session.
Meanwhile, India’s benchmark Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex Index advanced 0.27% and 0.32%, respectively, as of 1:34 p.m. local time (4:04 a.m. Wednesday EST).
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 pulled back, weighed down by Nvidia shares and a broad decline in technology stocks. The broad market S&P 500 lost 0.59% and closed at 6,411.37, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.46% to settle at 21,314.95.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 10.45 points, or 0.02%, and ended at 44,922.27. The 30-stock index touched a fresh record high during the session.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Yun Li contributed to this report.
