Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Thursday with Chinese trade data offering little support as investors focused on risk events later in the day of the U.k. election and testimony to Congress by the fired FBI director James Comey.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.13%. Shares of Toshiba jumped 6.43% after the company said it was targeting to announce the winning bidder for its semiconductor arm next week, Reuters reported. Toshiba put its memory chip unit on sale in a bid to resolve issues in its balance sheet stemming from losses incurred by Westinghouse Electric, its U.S. nuclear arm.
South Korea's Kospi dipped into negative territory to trade 0.34 percent lower after North Korea fired a salvo of land-to-ship missiles on Thursday morning. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was down by 0.19%.
The Hang Seng Index shed 0.03% and the Shanghai Composite eased 0.09%.
China reported a trade data surplus of $40.81 billion, narrower than the $46.32 billion expected, but wider than the $38.05 billion seen last month with exports up 8.7%, more than the 7.0% gain seen and imports up 14.8%, beating the 8.5% gain seen year-on-year.
Earlier, Japan GDP for the first quarter led a slew of data, with quarter-on-quarter figures coming in weaker than expected at a gain of 0.3%, compared to 0.6% seen and the annual pace at 1.0% compared with 2.4% expected. As well, the seasonally adjusted current account came in at a surplus of ¥1.81 trillion, wider than the ¥1.62 trillion forecast.
Australia's trade balance came in narrower than expected at A$555 million, compared to an expected at a surplus of A$1.950 billion for April, the data a bit of a lag.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, as investors parsed a written testimony from former FBI chief James Comey ahead of his appearance before the intelligence committee on Thursday while a slump in energy capped gains.
In written testimony, Comey quoted Trump as telling him: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go."
Comey is set to deliver his testimony in person at a hearing by the intelligence committee on Thursday.
A slump in energy had weighed on overall performance earlier during the session, as oil prices tumbled 5%, after data on Wednesday showed that supplies of U.S. crude rose for the first time in nine weeks, adding to concerns that rising U.S. oil output would undermine Opec and its allies’ efforts to curb supply.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for June delivery fell 5.1% to settle at $45.72 a barrel.
The higher close for U.S. stocks comes a day ahead of what is expected to be one of the busiest trading sessions of the quarter – as well as Comey’s testimony on Thursday, investors will contend with the UK election and an interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched closed at 21,173.69. The S&P 500 gained 0.16% while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6297.38, up 0.36%.