SHANGHAI, CHINA – The German Christmas Market is lit up at the Bund Central Square near Nanjing Road Pedestrian street in Shanghai, December 15, 2022. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets closed mostly lower Wednesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that saw key benchmarks advance overnight after better-than-expected economic growth data.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.14% to close at 50,344.1, while the Topix lost 0.46% to end at 3,407.37. Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday that the country was set to issue about 29.6 trillion yen (about $190 billion) in new government bonds to fund its fiscal 2026 budget.
Yields on the 30-year Japanese government bond rose over 2 basis points to a record high of 3.454%. Yields on the 20-year JGBs rose a little under one basis point to 2.992%.
Shares of Japan’s Sapporo Holdings rose 3.7% as the beverages maker announced a 477 billion yen (about $3 billion) deal to sell its real estate unit to private equity firms KKR and PAG.
South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.21% to 4,108.62, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.47% lower at 915.2. The South Korean won strengthened over 1% to 1,462.3 against the greenback, with Reuters reporting that country’s national pension fund was carrying out strategic foreign exchange hedging activities.
Shares of South Korean battery materials maker EnChem jumped over 10% following a domestic media report that it had secured a supply deal with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co valued at about Korean won 1.5 trillion (about $1.03 billion).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.17% to end the trading day at 25,818.93, while mainland China’s CSI 300 closed 0.29% higher at 4,634.06.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.38% to 8,762.7, snapping a four-day streak of gains.
India’s Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex were trading flat as of 12:45 p.m. local time.
Spot gold prices hit another record Wednesday, crossing $4,500 per ounce for the first time, driven by a weaker dollar, geopolitical tensions and U.S. Federal Reserve rate-cut expectations. Gold has notched a series of all-time highs this year, soaring over 70% year to date.
Platinum to surged to an all-time high, crossing $2,300 per ounce.
“Gold has blown past $4,500, Silver is flirting with $72, and Platinum is chasing $2400; all of which are arguably benefitting from the allure as hedges of USD debasement,” said Mizuho Securities’ head of Asia ex-Japan macro research, Vishnu Varathan.
The U.S. dollar index has weakened almost 10% since the start of the year, data from LSEG showed.
U.S. futures were trading near the flatline in early Asian hours.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks rose for a fourth straight session as artificial intelligence names continued to outperform during a holiday-shortened week.
The S&P 500 added 0.46%, closing at a record level of 6,909.79. The broad market index is now just below its intraday all-time high of 6,920.34.
The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.57% to end at 23,561.84. Gains in tech giants Nvidia and Broadcom, which rose around 3% and more than 2%, respectively, lifted the index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79.73 points, or 0.16%, and settled at 48,442.41.
—CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
