Melbourne’s skyline at dusk
Kokkai Ng | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Wednesday, as two key Wall Street benchmarks fell overnight after the U.S. consumer confidence reading came in much weaker than economists’ estimates.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 2.38% with gains led by the consumer and technology sectors as the city pledged in its budget to develop itself into a hub for the artificial intelligence industry, allocating 1 billion Hong Kong dollars toward AI research and development.
The Hang Seng Tech index surged 3.63% on the back of a sharp rise in JD.com (7.64%), Xpeng (6.30%), Alibaba (5.9%) and Meituan (5.67%).
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 and Topix were in negative territory for the second consecutive day. The Nikkei 225 fell 1.11%, while the broader Topix index was down 1.06%
South Korea’s Kospi was flat while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 0.23%.
Mainland China’s CSI300 index was trading 0.37% higher.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.32%, extending its losses to a second straight day.
The country’s weighted consumer price index rose 2.5% year on year in January, same as the month before. The reading was in line with Reuters estimates.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks slid on investor concerns over economic growth and global trade.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell for a fourth consecutive session, slipping 0.47%, to close at 5,955.25.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.35% to end the day at 19,026.39. The tech-heavy index’s decline was led by a 2.8% in drop in chipmaker Nvidia‘s shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, climbed 159.95 points, or 0.37%, to close at 43,621.16.
Investors sought safety in the U.S. bond market, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropping below 4.3% to hit their lowest level since December.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
