Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Thursday with little movement with Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific in focus.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.07% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 eased 0.07%, while the Hong Kong index held flat and the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.38%.
Cathay Pacific announced a first-half loss of HKD 2.05 billion (USD 262.07 million). The company attributed its poor performance in the first half of the year to increased competition and higher fuel prices. Cathay Pacific also added in its release that it didn't expect the operating environment to "improve materially" in the second half of the year. Shares of the company were flat.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, shaking off subpar U.S. housing data and earlier negative sentiment following President Donald Trump's decision to disbanded his manufacturing council amid a raft of CEO exits.
In a tweet, the president said he was ending the White House council on manufacturing and the Strategic and Policy reform.
Investor attention, however, shifted to the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting later in the session, which showed members were split on the path of rate hikes given the slowdown in inflation.
The minutes were widely viewed as dovish, as it showed Fed members were reluctant to view the slowdown in inflation as transitory, believing that the Fed could stand pat on interest rates increases until data signaled a rebound in inflation.
"In considering the timing of further adjustments in the federal funds rate, they would be evaluating incoming information to assess the likelihood that recent low readings on inflation were transitory". The minutes said.
Meanwhile, data showing the construction of multi-family houses tumbled to a 10-month low, had a relatively tame impact on U.S. stocks, as investors looked ahead to corporate earnings.
Housing starts dropped 4.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million units, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 22,024.87. The S&P 500 closed about 0.14% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6345, up 0.19%.