Asia-Pacific markets were trading both ways on Thursday as Wall Street closed lower following increasing geopolitical tensions and remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. defense stocks dropped after Trump said he “will not permit” defense firms to issue dividends or stock buybacks until they address his complaints on the industry, including executive pay packages and production issues.
Oil prices also fell overnight when Trump indicated that Venezuela’s interim authorities would hand over up to 50 million barrels of crude oil to the U.S., raising the issue of increased global supply.
Brent crude futures slipped 0.51 percent to $60.39 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude added 0.61 percent to $56.33 per barrel, as of 7.30 a.m. Singapore time (Wednesday 6.30 p.m. EST).
Therefore, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.69 percent, weighed down by the basic materials and technology stocks. Some of the largest fallers included SoftBank, which fell 4 percent, and Tokyo Electron, a supplier of the key chip-making equipment to the fabs that produce Nvidia chips, fell 2.9 percent. The broader Topix index gained 0.17 percent.
However, the Kospi of South Korea increased by 1.27 and the small-cap Kosdaq surged by 0.1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.29 percent higher at 8,720.8.
BlueScope Steel shares dropped 1.57 per cent when the firm declined a $9 billion takeover offer by U.S.-based Steel Dynamics and Australian conglomerate SGH, whose stock fell 1.92 percent.
According to a filing after the bell, the largest investor in BlueScope, AustralianSuper, raised its voting stake on Thursday in the steel manufacturer to 13.52 percent of the company.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index decreased 0.97 percent, led lower by losses in basic materials and technology stocks. Lenovo Group fell 3.44 percent, Kuaishou Technology lost 2.85 percent, and Baidu traded 2.76 percent lower. The mainland’s CSI 300 was flat. India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.21 percent, while the BSE Sensex index was 0.22 percent lower.
In the early hours of Asian hours, U.S equity futures remained unchanged, following a three-day win streak that had been experienced by the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Overnight, the broad market index shed about 0.3 percent while the Dow fell 466 points, or roughly 0.9 percent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged by 0.2 percent, aided by a 2.4 percent jump in Google parent Alphabet that led the company’s market cap to surpass Apple’s for the first time since 2019.
