Asian stocks were mixed Thursday amid worries over trade tensions, leavened by media reports that President Donald Trump may delay a decision on auto tariffs.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.7 per cent to 21,050.23. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.7 per cent at 2,078.49. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1 per cent to 6,290.10.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed, inching up less than 0.1 per cent to 28,284.00, while the Shanghai Composite rose nearly 0.1 per cent to 2,941.90, reports AP.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index gained 0.6 per cent to 2,850.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 per cent to 25,648.02.
The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, added 1.1 per cent to 7,822.15.
Small-company stocks lagged the market. The Russell 2000 index picked up 0.3 per cent to 1,548.27.
Benchmark US crude gained 35 cents to $62.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 0.4 per cent to $62.02 per barrel Wednesday.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 35 cents to $72.12 per barrel.
The dollar fell to 109.47 Japanese yen from 109.59 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1211 from $1.1206.
