A general view shows the skyline over the central business district in Beijing on Feb. 28, 2023.
Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower in choppy trading Wednesday, following a mixed performance on Wall Street amid mounting geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
Investors assessed October trade data out of Japan. Export growth came in at 3.1% year over year, topping estimates by economists polled by Reuters and up from a 1.7% drop in September. Import growth also beat estimates at 0.4% but was down from 2.1% the prior month.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.16% to end at 38,352.34, while the Topix lost 0.43% to 2,698.29.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.24% in its last hour of trade. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 0.22% to close at 3,985.77.
China’s central bank left its benchmark lending rates unchanged on Wednesday after cutting them in October.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.42% to end at 2,482.29, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.47% to 682.91.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.57% to end the day at 8,326.3.
Overnight in the U.S., the Nasdaq popped 1.04% to finish at 18,987.47, while the S&P 500 gained 0.4% to end at 5,916.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 120.66 points, or 0.28%, to settle at 43,268.94.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. that the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons had lowered, after President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia.
Markets came under pressure following reports that Ukraine had hit the Russian border region of Bryansk with U.S.-made missiles.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
