Asia markets mostly lower as investors assess trade data from China and Australia

Shares of Chinese real estate developer Evergrande continued its rally, climbing as much as 28% on Thursday — although the stock later pared gains to about 6.25% above its last close.

This comes after Evergrande spiked more than 70% on Wednesday, after news that counterpart Country Garden had avoided default on two bond coupon payments.

The rally was also partly fueled by a commentary in the state owned Securities Times, which called for the lifting of restrictions in China's property market.

— Lim Hui Jie

The S&P/ASX 200 led losses among major Asia-Pacific benchmarks on Thursday, falling 1.23% and dragged by energy and tech stocks.

Heavyweight miner BHP Group was among the largest losers on the index, falling 5.21%, while counterparts Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals lost 2.56% and 2.24%, respectively.

Tech names like Silex Systems were also among the top losers, as well as battery materials and technology company Novonix.

— Lim Hui Jie

China's exports and imports fell less than expected in August, declining 8.8% and 7.3% year on year respectively.

This is less steep than the fall of 9.2% in exports and 9% in imports expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The country's trade balance came in at $68.36 billion, less than the $80.6 billion seen in June and also lower than the $73.9 billion expected in the Reuters poll.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia's trade surplus for July came in at 8.04 billion Australian dollars ($7 billion), almost a third lower than June's revised figure of AU$10.27 billion.

This figure was also lower than the AU$10 billion surplus expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports fell 2% on a monthly basis, led by a fall in driven by non-monetary gold, while imports were 2.5% higher, driven by imports of non-industrial transport equipment.

— Lim Hui Jie

India's consumer market is set to become the world's third largest by 2027 as the number of middle- to high-income households rise, according to a report by BMI.

The report predicted that growth in India's household spending per capita will outpace that of other developing Asian economies like Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand at 7.8% year-on-year.

BMI estimates India's household spending will exceed $3 trillion as disposable income rises by a compounded 14.6% annually until 2027. By then, a projected 25.8% of Indian households will reach $10,000 in annual disposable income.

"The majority of these households will be located in the economic centres, such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The wealthier households are mainly located in urban areas, making it easy for retailers to target their key target markets," BMI said. 

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— Charmaine Jacob

Goldman is overweight on China's e-commerce sector, as China's e-commerce take rates – which stands at around 3% to 4% - is one of the lowest compared to that of its peers which have rates at "high single-digits-to-teens".

The analysts have named two e-commerce stocks in their conviction list to watch for the rest of the year, in their list of top Chinese stock picks.

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— Weizhen Tan

Morgan Stanley has named a European bank as a "top pick" and expects its stock to rally by 35% over the next 12 months.

The Wall Street bank has predicted that the European lender's profits will rise in 2024 despite the threat of windfall taxes on the continent.

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— Ganesh Rao

More increases may be ahead for the Federal Reserve depending on the data, but the central bank can take a more patient approach to policymaking, according to Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins.

"Overall, we are well positioned to proceed cautiously in this uncertain economic environment, recognizing the risks while remaining resolute and data-dependent, with the flexibility to adjust as conditions warrant," she said in prepared remarks for a speech in Boston.

Despite some promising signs on the inflation front, she said "further tightening could be warranted."

— Jeff Cox

The dollar was stable near a six-month high Wednesday as traders continued to express concern over China as well as overall global growth.

The dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a basket of currencies, was last trading near a six-month high hit a day earlier of 104.90.

The Japanese yen also strengthened ticked down slightly to 147.44 per U.S. dollar after ticking up 0.4% earlier on Wednesday.

— Brian Evans

The price of oil slipped on Wednesday, reversing some of Tuesday's upward move that came on the heels of Saudi Arabia extending its production cuts.

Front-month futures for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $86.53 per barrel.

Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to $89.67 per barrel, breaking back below the $90 mark. The Brent futures price briefly traded above $91 per barrel on Tuesday.

— Jesse Pound

The services sector of the U.S. economy expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in August, according to an Institute for Supply Management gauge released Wednesday.

The ISM Services index registered a 54.5% reading, representing the share of companies reporting growth during the period. That was up 1.8 percentage points from the July reading and better than the 52.5% forecast from the Dow Jones consensus.

Services have expanded eight straight months, contrasting to the manufacturing side, which has seen 10 consecutive months of contraction.

At an industry level, inventories rose 7.3 points and the employment index increased 4 points. Order backlogs slide 10.3 points, which was the only sub-index to show contraction.

—Jeff Cox