Aerial view of a container ship from a dock in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province.
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Asia-Pacific markets fell across the board, mirroring moves on Wall Street as investors weighed trade data from China and Australia.
China’s November trade numbers surprised expectations, with exports rising 0.5% and imports falling 0.6% year-on-year. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 1.1% annual drop in exports and a 3.3% increase in imports.
The trade surplus for the world’s second-largest economy also widened to $68.39 billion, beating forecasts of $58 billion.
Separately, oil prices have recovered slightly after hitting their lowest levels since June West Texas Intermediate The contract for January delivery rose 0.66% to trade at $69.82 a barrel.
The Brent contract for February It traded at $74.88 a barrel, up 0.7%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Losses eased 0.07% to 7,173.3 after the country’s trade surplus widened to 7.13 billion Australian dollars in October, but missed a Reuters poll by AU$7.5 billion.
of Japan Nikki 225 After leading gains in Asia on Wednesday, it ended down 1.76% at 32,858.31, while the Topix fell 1.14% at 2,359.91.
of South Korea Cosby The small-cap COST ended down 0.13% at 2,492.07, while the small-cap COST fell 0.77% at 813.2.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.66%, paring losses in its final hour, while China’s CSI 300 fell 0.24% to a new four-year high of 3,391.28.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indices retreated on Wednesday as investors awaited data indicating a drop in inflation while awaiting the jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.19% lost S&P 500 0.39% and the Nasdaq Composite decreased by 0.58%.
It was the third day of losses for the 30-stock Dow and the S&P 500 — the first for both indexes since October.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Hahn and Alex Haring contributed to this report.
