Asia-Pacific markets mixed amid lingering growth concerns and geopolitical tensions
- Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday amid some lingering concerns about global growth and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
- On the data front, traders will watch the U.S. Labor Department's nonfarm payroll count due Friday, which is seen as one of the major indicators of the how the U.S. economy is doing.
- Elsewhere, on Wednesday, OPEC and its non-OPEC allies agreed to green-light an increase in crude output to 400,000 barrels a day for March as oil prices trade near record levels in part due to geopolitical tensions.
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday amid some lingering concerns about global growth and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
In Australia, the ASX 200 trimmed earlier losses to trade down 0.14%, closing at 7,078. But, shares of major miners rose as Rio Tinto advanced 2.43%, Fortescue was up 3.27% and BHP added 3.09%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.06% to 27,241.31 while the Topix index was down 0.86% at 1,919.92. In South Korea, the Kospi bucked the downward trend and rose 1.67% to 2,707.82 while the Kosdaq advanced 2.15% to 891.60.
Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 1.72% in late afternoon trade.
A number of major markets, including those on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong, remain shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Thursday's session in Asia followed overnight gains on Wall Street, which were driven by a jump in tech shares.
On the data front, traders will watch the U.S. Labor Department's nonfarm payroll count due Friday, which is seen as one of the major indicators of the how the U.S. economy is doing.
Some estimates suggest that January's payroll figure could have potentially slowed to a crawl, or even turned negative — data from payroll processing firm ADP showed that companies subtracted 301,000 jobs during the month, largely due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases and a wider slowdown in business conditions.
"That drop followed a weak initial claims report for the labour market survey week in January, and has resulted in a wave of downward revisions for Friday's official nonfarm payrolls release, which is now widely expected to show a negative number," analysts at ANZ Research wrote on a Thursday morning note.
"Omicron is to blame," they said, adding, "However, with confirmed COVID cases falling sharply, a bounce-back in jobs is expected in February/March."
Elsewhere, geopolitical tensions in eastern Europe remained at heightened levels after the Pentagon said it will move some of its Europe-based forces further east and deploy additional U.S.-based troops to Europe.
That deployment comes as an estimated 100,000 Russian troops equipped with advanced weaponry line Ukraine's eastern border with Russia and northern border with Belarus, which is an ally to Moscow.
Currencies and oil
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar last traded at 96.122 against a basket of its peers.
The Japanese yen changed hands at 114.60 per dollar while the Australian dollar slipped 0.17% to $0.7124.
Oil prices slipped during Asian hours as U.S. crude futures fell 0.49% to $87.83 per barrel. Brent crude futures declined 0.37% to $89.14 per barrel.
A day earlier, OPEC and its non-OPEC allies agreed to green-light an increase in crude output to 400,000 barrels a day for March as oil prices trade near record levels in part due to geopolitical tensions.
| TICKER | COMPANY | NAME | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .N225 | Nikkei 225 Index | NIKKEI | 38,617.10 | -329.83 | -0.85% |
| .HSI | Hang Seng Index | HSI | 19,195.60 | -25.02 | -0.13% |
| .AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | ASX 200 | 7,848.10 | -3.60 | -0.05% |
| .SSEC | Shanghai | SHANGHAI | 3,158.54 | +0.57 | +0.02% |
| .KS11 | KOSPI Index | KOSPI | 2,723.46 | -0.72 | -0.03% |
| .FTFCNBCA | CNBC 100 ASIA IDX | CNBC 100 | 9,769.50 | +1.55 | +0.02% |
— CNBC's Jeff Cox and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.