A flag of Japan flies near cargo containers at Tokyo’s Odaiba Waterfront on August 6, 2020.
BEHROUZ MEHRI | Contributor | Getty Images
China property stocks dropped amid an official breifing by the country’s housing ministry even as the broader CSI 300 rose along with most Asia-Pacific markets following gains on Wall Street.
The CSI 300 real estate index — which had gained 5% on Wednesday — fell 4.8%, while the main CSI 300 was up 0.40%.
The Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5%, while the broad-based Topix was little changed as investors assesed trade data out of Japan.
Japan’s exports fell 1.7% in September compared to the same period last year, surprising economists polled by Reuters who expected a 0.5% growth rate. It’s the first time that exports contracted this year and was down sharply from a revised growth rate of 5.5% in August.
September’s import growth came in at 2.1% also missing expectations of economists who expected growth of 3.2%. The figure was down from August’s growth of 2.3%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8% in early trading.
Australia’s unemployment rate for September in at 4.1%, slightly down from a Reuters poll that expected it to remain unchanged from August at 4.2%.
Australia’s labor participation rate slightly increased to 67.2% in September, up 0.1 percentage points from August as well as forecasts.
South Korea’s Kospi was trading up 0.1%, while the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.1%.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng index opened up 1.9% following a number of policy announcements from its chief executive on Wednesday.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 was trading up 0.6% at open as the country’s housing ministry held a briefing on efforts to support the property sector.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is set to report earnings later Thursday. TSMC’s results will be in focus after poor sales forecasts from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML drove down global chip stocks.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones gained 337.28 points, or 0.79%, to ended at 43,077.70.
The S&P 500 added 0.47% to 5,842.47, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.28% to close at 18,367.08.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
