· Shares in Asia-Pacific mixed; Australia records higher-than-expected trade surplus in July
Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday trade as Australia reported a higher-than-expected trade surplus in July.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia shed 0.72%. Australia recorded a trade surplus of 12.117 billion Australian dollars (about $8.93 billion) in July, according to data released Thursday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That was much higher than the 10.2 billion Australian dollars surplus projected in a Reuters poll.
Elsewhere, mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with the Shanghai composite up 0.55% while the Shenzhen component shed 0.316%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index hovered fractionally higher.
Chinese regulators summoned and interviewed 11 ride-hailing firms asking them to rectify non-compliant behavior. Companies that were interviewed by the Ministry of Transport and other regulators included Didi and Meituan.
Meituan shares in Hong Kong were 0.63% higher by Thursday afternoon in the city. Shares of other Chinese tech firms in Hong Kong were also largely in positive territory: Tencent jumped 1.68% and Alibaba rose 2.3%. The Hang Seng Tech index advanced 1.33%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.32% while the Topix index was fractionally higher. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.76%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.13%.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 hovered around the flatline in early trade, with tech stocks shedding 0.4% while health care gained 0.3%, as most sectors remained relatively unchanged.
Investors around the world are closely watching data releases from the U.S. in the next few days. The markets are expecting the weekly initial jobless claims report Thursday and the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
· Stock futures are muted as September gets off to a slow start
U.S. stock futures were little changed early Thursday morning after the S&P 500 finished the first trading session of the month near the flatline.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up by 12 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures both traded close to the flatline.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters
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