Investing.com – Asian stocks traded mostly to the downside Thursday as traders mulled over news from the Federal Reserve as well as a marquee Chinese data point.
In Asian trading Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.15%. USD/JPY got a lifter after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July monetary policy meeting showed support among Fed members for tapering the central bank’s easing efforts at some point this year.
"A few members emphasized the importance of being patient and evaluating additional information on the economy before deciding on any changes to the pace of asset purchases," according to the Fed minutes.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.42%, but the Shanghai Composite rose 0.12% after a stronger-than-expected HSBC China flash manufacturing PMI for August.
The China PMI data rose to a four-month high of 50.1 in August, beating expectations for a reading of 48.2. Reading above 50 indicate expansion. The July reading was an 11-month low of 47.7.
China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilise on the back of modest improvements of new business and output. This is mainly driven by the initial filtering through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies’ restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months," said Hongbin Qu, Chief Economist, China & Co. Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC in a report.
The decent Chinese data were not enough to bolster Australian stocks as the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.5%. China is Australia’s largest export market.
Weakness in Aussie equities could be attributable to the recent plunge in emerging markets stocks, one that prompted Citi group to lower its emerging world growth outlook Wednesday.
"The emerging market downgrades reflect various country-specific factors, but common themes are still-sluggish export growth to advanced economies, the deterioration in private sector balance sheets across many emerging markets, plus vulnerability of many emerging markets to yen depreciation and China’s slowdown," said the bank.
New Zealand’s NZSE 50 fell 0.53% while South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.65%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 1%.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.17% a day after the benchmark U.S. index slipped 0.58%.
In Asian trading Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.15%. USD/JPY got a lifter after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July monetary policy meeting showed support among Fed members for tapering the central bank’s easing efforts at some point this year.
"A few members emphasized the importance of being patient and evaluating additional information on the economy before deciding on any changes to the pace of asset purchases," according to the Fed minutes.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.42%, but the Shanghai Composite rose 0.12% after a stronger-than-expected HSBC China flash manufacturing PMI for August.
The China PMI data rose to a four-month high of 50.1 in August, beating expectations for a reading of 48.2. Reading above 50 indicate expansion. The July reading was an 11-month low of 47.7.
China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilise on the back of modest improvements of new business and output. This is mainly driven by the initial filtering through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies’ restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months," said Hongbin Qu, Chief Economist, China & Co. Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC in a report.
The decent Chinese data were not enough to bolster Australian stocks as the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.5%. China is Australia’s largest export market.
Weakness in Aussie equities could be attributable to the recent plunge in emerging markets stocks, one that prompted Citi group to lower its emerging world growth outlook Wednesday.
"The emerging market downgrades reflect various country-specific factors, but common themes are still-sluggish export growth to advanced economies, the deterioration in private sector balance sheets across many emerging markets, plus vulnerability of many emerging markets to yen depreciation and China’s slowdown," said the bank.
New Zealand’s NZSE 50 fell 0.53% while South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.65%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 1%.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.17% a day after the benchmark U.S. index slipped 0.58%.