SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks traded mixed on Tuesday as investors watched shares of Japanese financial services firm Nomura move after their slump on Monday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.17% in morning trade while the Topix index was down 1.15%.
Japan’s retail sales fell 1.5% yoy in February. That is according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. That compares to a median market forecast for a 2.8% decline, according to Reuters.
Nomura shares continued to decline Tuesday as they fell nearly 3%. The company’s shares fell more than 16% on Monday after the company warned of a “significant loss” at one of its US subsidiaries as a result of transactions with a customer in the US.
Meanwhile, Chinese mainland stocks fell in early trading: the Shanghai Composite lost 0.24% while the Shenzhen component lost 0.202%.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.5%. Australian stocks were down as the S & P / ASX 200 fell 0.36%.
MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan was down 0.08%.
Overnight in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 98 points higher to a new record of 33,171. The S&P 500 fell slightly on the day to 3,971.09 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% to 13,059.65.
Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, stood at 92.924 as it largely stuck in gains after rising below 92 last week.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.93 per dollar, still relatively weaker than below 109 against last week’s greenback. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7634, below the $ 0.762 level seen last week of trading.
Oil prices were lower on the morning of trading hours in Asia and the international benchmark Brent crude oil futures fell about 0.4% to $ 64.71 a barrel. US crude oil futures were down 0.15% to $ 61.47 a barrel.
