Nikkei 225 shed more than 0.4% to 38,200.00, Hang Seng advanced 2.8% to 16,698.00, Shanghai Composite was 1.7% higher to 2,972.87, and Kospi lost 0.4% to 2,647.44
Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday after technology stocks led Wall Street broadly down on Tuesday, with investors waiting for chipmaker Nvidia’s quarter earning report.
The report, which will come out later in the day, will put stock markets in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan on alert as these three regions contributed more than 45% of Nvidia’s revenue in Q3.
U.S. futures dropped while oil prices rose.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed more than 0.4% in morning trading at 38,200.00.
Japan’s exports experienced a remarkable year-on-year rise of 11.9% in January, driven by strong demand from chip-making machinery in China, and solid export gains of auto in the U.S. and EU, per Wednesday data from the Ministry of Finance.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 2.8% to 16,698.00, driven by Tech Index which added 3.6%. The Shanghai Composite was 1.7% higher to 2,972.87.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.8% to 7,600.00 despite Wednesday data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing the country’s wage index rose by 4.2% compared to the same period in the previous year, marking the highest recorded annual rise since the March quarter of 2009.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.4% to 2,647.44.
On Tuesday Wall Street, the S&P 500 declined 0.6% to 4,975.51. It is coming off only its second losing week in the last 16. The losses pushed the benchmark index further below the record it set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2%, to 38,563.80. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.9%, to 15,630.78.
Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the market, with chipmakers as a particularly heavy weight. Nvidia plunged 4.4%. It is still the S&P 500’s biggest gainer so far this year, rising nearly 40%.
