The Seoul skyline at sunset.
Ed Jones | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Wednesday, following Wall Street declines after Treasury yields rose and major U.S. tech stocks declined.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 1.01% and mainland China’s CSI 300 dipped 0.22%, while the Chinese onshore yuan hit a 16-month low of 7.3316 against the greenback.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 0.26% to close at 39,981.06, while the Topix lost 0.59% to 2,770. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.16% to close at 2,521.05 while the Kosdaq Index rose 0.19% to 719.63.
Shares of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics rose 3.43% in choppy trading, shrugging off a worse-than-expected profit forecast for the fourth quarter.
The world’s top memory chip maker said its operating profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 would be around 6.5 trillion won ($4.47 billion), missing LSEG estimates of 7.7 trillion won.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.77% higher to close at 8,349.1.
Shares of Chinese tech firm Tencent Holdings fell 2.27% after extending from an almost 8% decline on Tuesday following its inclusion in the U.S. Department of Defense list of “Chinese military companies.” Shares of battery maker CATL, which was also included in the list, lost 1.92%.
Overnight in the U.S., declines across major tech stocks dragged the market lower.
The S&P 500 dipped 1.11% to close at 5,909.03. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 178.20 points, or 0.42%, and ended at 42,528.36. The Nasdaq Composite slid 1.89% to 19,489.68. The major averages traded higher earlier in the day before rolling over. Nvidia shares fell 6.2% after hitting a record.
Tesla slipped 4% after Bank of America downgraded the electric-vehicle maker given its high valuation and risks associated with its strategy. Meta Platforms shed nearly 2%, while Apple and Microsoft each dipped more than 1%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
