Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday with mainland China and Hong Kong gaining on a solid services PMI reading, while Japan edged down as the dollar weakened overnight and into Asia from 14-year highs against a basket of currencies as investors began to cast doubt the Fed would raise rates three times this year.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.08%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was last up 1.04%. The yuan rose Thursday to its highest level against the dollar in three weeks after the People's Bank of China set a stronger fixing at 6.9307, compared with a fixing of 6.9526 Wednesday.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.33%, while the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.30%.
Fed minutes as investors said that the forecast of as many as three rate hikes in 2017 is highly variable on President-elect Donald Trump getting an aggressive tax cut and spending plan through Congress.
The Caixin services PMI for China rose to 53.4, a tick above 53.3 expected and that followed solid manufacturing figures from China as well as Japan regionally this week.
"Improved rates of new order growth were also seen across both monitored sectors in December. The pace of new business expansion accelerated to its strongest since July 2014 at manufacturing companies amid reports of improving client demand. At the same time, growth in new work at services companies quickened to a 17-month record. Subsequently, the rate of composite new order growth was the fastest since March 2013," Caixin said in a release.
"Despite stronger expansions in activity and new work, service providers increased their payrolls at a softer pace in December. Furthermore, the latest increase in staff numbers was the slowest for three months and modest overall. Meanwhile, job shedding persisted across China’s manufacturing sector, though the rate of reduction was little-changed from November. At the composite level, employment fell slightly in December after broadly stabilising in the previous month."
Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Financials and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.30%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.57%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.88%.