Asian Markets Mostly Lower

Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, ignoring the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid the uncertainty about the pace of global economic recovery due to surging coronvirus cases in the region and the continuing regulatory clampdown in China. Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Monday.

Trading activity is also somewhat subdued as investors looked ahead to the release of the U.S. Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday, which is pivotal in determining how soon the Fed can trim stimulus.

The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,500 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight and gains in technology and gold miners.

Meanwhile, the upside is limited as Australia’s two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are still under lockdown as it struggles to contain the domestic coronavirus situation, primarily in New South Wales and Victoria.

NSW has reported 1164 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and three deaths on Monday. Victoria also recorded 76 new locally acquired cases, with the active cases totalling 841 across Victoria.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 34.30 points or 0.46 percent to 7,538.80, after touching a high of 7,540.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 36.00 points or 0.46 percent to 7,824.60. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.3 percent, while Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.4 percent, OZ Minerals is up almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 2 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are lower. Santos and Oil Search are losing more than 1 percent each, while Woodside Petroleum is down almost 2 percent, and Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent. Beach energy is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Xero is edging up 0.3 percent and Afterpay is gaining more than 1 percent, while Appen is adding more than 4 percent. WiseTech Global is up 4.6 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining is gaining 1.5 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are adding almost 1 percent each. Evolution Mining is edging down 0.3 percent. Newcrest Mining is flat.

In other news, shares in Mesoblast are plunging more than 10 percent after the stem cell treatments producer reported a wider loss for the full year as it continues to work with the US Food and Drug Administration to get approval for its flagship product, Ryoncil.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.730 on Tuesday.

The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, giving up the slight gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei index staying above the 27,700 level, ignoring the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as the nation struggles to contain the domestic coronavirus infection rates, with more prefectures and cities under the state of emergency.

The market bounced back a bit after steep losses earlier in the session on data that showed an unexpected drop in unemployment rate, the lowest in three months. Industrial production in Japan also dropped less than expected.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 27,735.34, down 53.95 points or 0.19 percent, after hitting a low of 27,602.21 earlier. Japanese shares closed modestly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging down 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.1 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging down 0.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is flat. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.3 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are higher, with Sony edging down 0.5 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.3 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among the other major gainers, JFE Holdings and Rakuten Group are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Pacific Metals, Nippon Steel and Nippon Yusen K.K. are adding more than 2 percent each. Z Holdings, Nippon Sheet Glass, Takara Holdings, FUJIFILM Holdings, Sekisui House and M3 are up almost 2 percent each.

Conversely, Odakyu Electric Railway, Keio, NEXON and T&D Holdings are losing more than 4 percent each, while Keisei Electric Railway and Tobu Railway are down almost 4 percent each. Tokyu, J. Front Retailing and Dentsu Group are more than 3 percent each, while

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 109 yen-range on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong in plunging 1.6 percent, Singapore is dropping 1.2 percent and Taiwan is losing 1 percent, while China, Indonesia and South Korea are lower by between 0.1 and 0.6 percent each. New Zealand and Malaysia are up 0.1 and 0.7 percent, respectively.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday, following the advance seen last Friday. With the upward move, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached new record closing highs. Stocks continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which helped lift the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record closing highs last Friday.

Among the major averages, the S&P 500 rose 19.42 points or 0.4 percent to 4,528.79 and the Nasdaq climbed 136.39 points or 0.9 percent to 15,265.89. Meanwhile, the narrower Dow edged down 55.96 points or 0.2 percent to 35,399.84.

The major European markets also moved to the upside, although the U.K. markets were closed for a holiday. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index crept up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher Monday, as investors weighted supply disruptions due to Hurricane Ida against the likelihood that OPEC and its allies will go ahead with an increase in output. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October jumped $0.47 or 0.7 percent to $69.21 a barrel.