View of Shanghai skyline from a container station.
Yaorusheng | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday as investors awaited April trade numbers from China and assessed salary data from Japan.
Economists polled by Reuters expect China’s exports to have risen 1.5% last month, a reversal from the 7.5% drop in March. April imports are also expected to have grown 4.8% year on year, compared with a 1.9% fall in March.
Separately, real wages in Japan fell 2.5% year on year in March, marking a 24th straight month of decline.
Investors are looking for any signs of the “virtuous cycle” of increasing wages and prices envisioned by the Bank of Japan.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.22%, while the broad based Topix was up 0.44%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.13%, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was 0.18% up.
South Korea’s Kospi retreated from a one-month high, falling 0.26% on open, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.13%.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.71%.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its winning streak to six days, as investors shook off some weakness in tech.
The Dow added 0.44% to notch its longest winning run of 2024. The S&P 500 inched lower and closed near the flatline, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 0.18%.
Investors are also digesting a slew of Federal Reserve commentary. Boston Fed President Susan Collins said on Wednesday that the Fed’s interest rate policy will likely need to remain at its current level until inflation moves “sustainably” toward the central bank’s 2% target.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report.