Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday, with Tokyo recouping some losses from the previous day.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.27%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.57%. In Australia, the trade balance for October came in at a surplus of A$105 million, down from a surplus of A$1.604 billion posted in September.
The Australian Securities Exchange said in a Thursday statement it intended to replace its existing clearing and settlement system with distributed ledger technology, or blockchain. The new system will be open to market feedback at the end of March 2018, the ASX said.
Elsewhere, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) on Wednesday said it would acquire 40% of Sinopharm Holding Guoda Drugstores, a Chinese retail pharmacy operator. Walgreens said it would buy the stake for CNY 2.77 billion ($416 million) from China National Accord Medicines Corporation.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.59% and the Hang Seng index eased 0.01%,
Overnight, US stocks closed mixed on Wednesday as investors awaited an update on the progress of tax reform, while å slump in financials offset strong gains in tech pressuring the main indexes lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 24143.04. The S&P 500 closed 0.01% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6776.38, up 0.21%.
US stocks continued to come under pressure as financials, mostly banks, underperformed the broader market amid a lack of details on the tax reform progress.
The Senate and House of Representatives are set to get talks underway this week to reconcile their respective bills. Investor expectations, however, remained bullish that a final bill will reach President Donald Trump for approval before year-end.
On the economic data front investors, cheered bullish private sector job creation data, stoking expectations for a solid non-farm payrolls report due Friday.
Private payrolls grew by 190,000 for the month, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP and Moody's Analytics. That beat economists’ forecast of 185,000.