Bombay Gate Gateway of India, Mumbai
Arutthaphon Poolsawasd | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Wednesday after Wall Street gained overnight.
India’s markets will also be in focus as the U.S. tariffs take effect. The country currently faces additional tariffs of up to 50% on exports to the U.S., after the Trump administration escalated tariff threats in response to its substantial imports of Russian energy.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.17%, and the Topix lost 0.3%. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.17% and the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.16%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.23%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 25,626, pointing to a higher open compared to the HSI’s last close of 25,524.92.
Overnight stateside, the three major benchmarks ended the trading day higher. The S&P 500 closed higher as Wall Street looked beyond President Donald Trump’s removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from the central bank’s board and awaited quarterly figures from chip giant Nvidia.
The broad market S&P 500 settled up 0.41% at 6,465.94. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also added 0.44% to end the day at 21,544.27. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 135.60 points, or 0.30%, to finish at 45,418.07.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Sarah Min and Christina Cheddar Berk contributed to this report.