Asia-Pacific markets were mixed as Japan’s third-quarter GDP was revised downward in a surprise move, while India’s central bank held its benchmark lending rate steady.
Japan’s third-quarter GDP was revised downward to a 0.7% fall quarter-on-quarter, a sharper slide compared with the 0.5% decline estimated earlier. Economists had forecast that the revised figure would be unchanged at 0.5%
The Reserve Bank of India held its repo rate at 6.5%, in line with a Reuters poll of 64 economists that unanimously forecast the bank would keep its benchmark policy rate steady.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% and ended at 7,194.9, reversing earlier losses.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.68% after the GDP data to end at 32,307.86, its lowest level in a month, while the Topix fell 1.5% to 2,324.47.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.03% to finish at 2,517.85 while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 2.11% to 830.37.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index erased earlier gains to trade marginally below the flatline in its final hour, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 gained 0.24%, rebounding off a four year low and ending at 3,399.46.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes gained ground as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 broke three-day losing streaks, ahead of Friday’s all-important jobs report.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8%, while the blue-chip Dow added 0.17%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.37% as technology stocks outperformed.
Google-parent Alphabet gained more than 5% as traders cheered the company’s launch of its Gemini artificial intelligence model. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) also added more than 2% and 9%, respectively.
