SHENZHEN, CHINA – AUGUST 26: An aerial view of the Shenzhen skyline on August 26, 2020 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. (Photo by He Shaoping/VCG via Getty Images)
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Thursday after Wall Street closed lower amid rising geopolitical tensions and comments from U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. defense stocks fell after Trump said he “will not permit” defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until they address his complaints about the industry, including executive pay packages and production issues.
Oil prices also dropped overnight after Trump said that Venezuela’s interim authorities would turn over as much as 50 million barrels of crude to the U.S., raising concerns about an increase in global supply.
Brent crude futures fell 0.51% to $60.39 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude added 0.61% to $56.33 per barrel, as of 7.30 a.m. Singapore time (Wednesday 6.30 p.m. EST).
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.69%, weighed down by the basic materials and technology stocks. Among the biggest decliners were SoftBank, which lost 4%, and Tokyo Electron, which provides essential chipmaking equipment to foundries that manufacture Nvidia’s chips, was 2.9% lower. The broader Topix index retreated 0.17%.
South Korea’s Kospi added 1.27%, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.1%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ticked slightly higher in volatile trading. Shares of BlueScope Steel fell 1.87% early Thursday, after the company rejected a $9 billion takeover bid from Australian conglomerate SGH and U.S.-based Steel Dynamics.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.97%, led lower by losses in basic materials and technology stocks. Lenovo Group fell 3.44%, Kuaishou Technology lost 2.85%, and Baidu traded 2.76% lower. The mainland’s CSI 300 was flat.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours, after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a three-day winning streak.
Overnight, the broad market index shed about 0.3% while the Dow fell 466 points, or roughly 0.9%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained nearly 0.2%, aided by a 2.4% jump in Google parent Alphabet that led the company’s market cap to surpass Apple’s for the first time since 2019.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
