Australian shares little changed in early trade as markets in China, Japan remain shut
Australian shares were little changed in early trade on Wednesday while some of the other major Asia-Pacific markets are closed for the day.
The benchmark ASX 200 traded fractionally higher at 7,072, with the heavily-weighted financials subindex up 0.38%. Energy and materials were up 1.13% and 0.19%, respectively as major miners and oil stocks advanced.
Wednesday’s session in Asia follows an overnight session on Wall Street where the S&P 500 fell amid selling in Big Tech and other high-growth stocks while the Nasdaq Composite registered its worst day since March.
“Equities traded defensively amid declines in technology stocks and comments from Yellen that the Fed may need to raise interest rates somewhat to prevent the economy from overheating,” analyst at ANZ Research wrote in a morning note.
“There is some concern that the best of the improvement in US earnings may have already occurred after the weaker April ISM manufacturing survey. The reality is that data can’t continuously improve at the pace it did in March and April, but underlying growth is expanding rapidly,” they added.
Markets in China and Japan remain closed for public holidays. South Korean markets are also shut.
Reference: CNBC
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