Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed after Wall Street gains on EU tariff delay
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Wednesday, after Wall Street gains on investor optimism after U.S. President Donald Trump extended the deadline for a 50% tariff on European Union imports until July 9.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 and Topix traded flat to close at 37,722.4 and 2,769.51 respectively. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.25% to end the trading day at 2,670.15 and the small-cap Kosdaq Index advanced 0.23% to close at 728.79.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.13% to close at 8,396.9. Australia’s inflation rate rose 2.4% in April, unchanged since February but higher than the median estimate of 2.3% polled by Reuters.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 0.55% while mainland China’s CSI 300 traded flat to close at 3,836.24.
India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.17%.
Over in New Zealand, its central bank expectedly cut the benchmark rate to 3.25%. The New Zealand dollar strengthened modestly following the announcement to trade at 0.5947 against the greenback.
U.S. futures were little changed as investors await earnings results from Nvidia and the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s May meeting, due Wednesday afternoon U.S. time.
Overnight, the three major stock averages closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 740.58 points, or 1.78%, to finish at 42,343.65, while the S&P 500 rose 2.05% to 5,921.54. Both snapped four-day losing streaks. The Nasdaq Composite popped 2.47% to 19,199.16 as technology names like Tesla saw outsized gains.
Source: CNBC
