SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks slipped in Thursday morning trade, with investors awaiting the release of China’s trade data for May expected later today.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was little changed in fractionally lower in early trading while the Topix index shed 0.12%. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.46%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.3%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.21% lower.
China is set to announce its trade data for May later on Thursday.
The European Central Bank is also expected to signal a July rate hike at its policy meeting later on Thursday. In Asia-Pacific, the central banks of Australia and India both announced rate hikes earlier this week.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 1.08% to 4,115.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 269.24 points, or 0.81%, to 32,910.90. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.73% to 12,086.27.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 102.573 in a turbulent week that has seen it go from levels below 102 to around 102.8.
The Japanese yen traded at 134.42 per dollar, weaker as compared with levels below 132 seen earlier in the week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7186, still off levels above $0.725 seen last week.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.12% to $123.73 per barrel. U.S. crude futures climbed around 0.1% to $122.19 per barrel.