Stocks in Asia posted mixed results in the early hours of Wednesday trade, marking a tepid conclusion to what’s been a brutal October for shares.
South Korea’s Kospi was slightly lower in early trade, with shares of heavyweight Samsung Electronics rising 1.53 percent. The stock’s move came on the back of the release of a record quarterly profit on Wednesday.
Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 was slightly higher in the morning as the energy sector advanced 1.04 percent and materials fell 0.51 percent.
The heavily weighted financial subindex rose 0.85 percent with the shares of Australia’s so-called Big Four banks seeing gains. Among those, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) rose 1.4 percent after earlier reporting a 5 percent decline in full-year cash profit.
“In general the market is just more cautious,” ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday following the earnings release. “It’s also a lot more competitive.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.72 percent in early trade, while the Topix gained 0.73 percent.
China is set to release figures for an important economic indicator later today: The country’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index is out at 9 a.m. HK/SIN.
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks jumped higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 431.72 points to close at 24,874.64 while the S&P 500 rose around 1.57 percent to finish at 2,682.63. The Nasdaq Composite also saw gains of 1.58 percent to end the trading day at 7,161.65.
The moves in the U.S. followed a shaky Monday session that saw stocks giving up sharp gains. Market participants attributed the action to the possibility of more U.S.-China tariffs, a drop in tech stocks and worries over higher interest rates for the decline.
In other news catching investors’ interest worldwide, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the U.S. is taking on too much debt right now, and that the problem will only worsen moving forward as more baby boomers retire and spending on retirement and health-care programs increase.
“If I had a magic wand, I would raise taxes and cut retirement spending,” Yellen told CNBC’s Steve Liesman at the Charles Schwab Impact conference in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. fiscal deficit rose to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, up 17 percent from the previous fiscal year.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.992 following a rally from the 96.6. handle yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 113.13 against the dollar after weakening from levels around 112.3 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was at $0.7098, strengthening from levels just below $0.706 seen yesterday.
— Reuters and CNBC’s Thomas Franck and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
