Shares in the Asia-Pacific were mostly higher on Thursday after Wall Street’s two-day rally fizzled and OPEC+ agreed to cut 2 million barrels per day to shore up prices. Oil futures were slightly up during Asia’s session.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% to 27,311.30, while the Topix added 0.5% to 1,922.47. The Kospi in South Korea rose 1.02% to 2,237.86 and the Kosdaq was 3.02% higher at 706.1.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed about flat at 6,817.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.38% in the final hour of trade after surging around 6% on Wednesday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares gained 0.37%.
Mainland China markets are closed for a holiday this week.
U.S. stocks slipped overnight after seeing sharp gains for the previous two sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 42.45 points, or 0.14%, to 30,273.87 after falling nearly 430 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 dipped 0.2% to close at 3,783.28, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.25% to 11,148.64.
“The optimism that buoyed financial markets earlier this week receded as U.S. data continued to articulate the need for further, decisive central bank policy action,” according to an ANZ Research note Thursday.
September’s ISM services index and the private payrolls report by ADP both beat estimates overnight. Investors will be looking ahead to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payrolls report at the end of the week.
