CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are mixed on Tuesday despite the mostly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as the stalemate in U.S. stimulus talks and U.S.-China tensions weighed on sentiment. The Trump administration has announced new restrictions on China's Huawei Technologies Co.
Investors also remained cautious as they looked ahead to the release later today of minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting. The minutes will be scrutinized for any clues to policy changes at the Fed's next meeting in September.
The Australian market is rising following the mostly positive cues from Wall Street and as Victoria reported the lowest number of daily coronavirus cases in a month. Investor sentiment was boosted after supermarket giant Coles reported an increase in profit for the full year.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is adding 16.70 points or 0.27 percent to 6,093.10, after touching a high of 6,099.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is advancing 21.30 points or 0.34 percent to 6,239.80. Australian stocks closed lower on Monday.
Among the major miners, Fortescue Metals is higher by more than 2 percent, Rio Tinto is rising almost 2 percent and BHP Group is adding 0.3 percent.
Gold miners are also higher after gold prices surged overnight. Evolution Mining is gaining more than 4 percent and Newcrest Mining is advancing more than 1 percent.
Coles Group reported a 5.7 percent increase in full-year profit excluding significant and other items, while statutory net profit declined 31.8 percent from last year. The supermarket giant's shares are up more than 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the big four banks are notably lower. Westpac is losing almost 4 percent, ANZ Banking is lower by more than 2 percent, National Australia Bank is declining almost 2 percent and Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent.
Westpac said it will not pay a dividend for the first half of fiscal 2020 due to the ongoing uncertainty in the operating environment and will next consider paying dividends while reporting its full-year results in November.
Oil stocks are mostly lower even as crude oil prices advanced overnight. Oil Search is declining more than 1 percent and Woodside Petroleum is down 0.5 percent, while Santos is adding 0.5 percent.
In economic news, members of the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary policy board said that while the worst of the global contraction caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has passed, considerable uncertainty remains, minutes from the central bank's August 4 and 5 meeting revealed.
In particular, Australia's recovery following the outbreak has been slower than expected, the bank said, although the board reiterated that it would maintain the current accommodative policy stance for as long as necessary.
The Japanese market is extending losses from the previous session after opening higher, while a stronger safe-haven yen weighed on exporters' shares. Investors also turned cautious ahead of the release later today of the U.S. Federal Reserve's minutes.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 106.79 points or 0.46 percent to 22,989.96, after touching a high of 23,128.18 in early trades. The Japanese market closed lower on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is down 0.3 percent and Fast Retailing is declining 0.5 percent.
The major exporters are lower on a stronger yen. Canon is declining almost 3 percent, while Sony and Panasonic are lower by almost 1 percent each. Mitsubishi Electric is down 0.4 percent each.
In the tech space, Advantest is lower by more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 1 percent. In the financial sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is lower by almost 2 percent.
Among automakers, Honda Motor is declining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.
In the oil sector, Japan Petroleum and Inpex are losing almost 3 percent each even as crude oil prices advanced overnight.
Shares of Fujifilm Holdings are adding 0.4 percent after the company said that its unit Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies will manufacture Novavax's coronavirus vaccine candidate in the UK, starting in early 2021.
Among the other major gainers, M3 is rising more than 3 percent, Pacific Metals is higher by almost 3 percent and Cyberagent is advancing almost 2 percent.
Conversely, Mitsui E&S, Credit Saison, Konica Minolta and IHI Corp. are all losing more than 4 percent each, while Showa Denko, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and ANA Holdings are lower by more than 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 105 yen-range on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia are also higher, while South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are lower. Shanghai is little changed. On Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Monday, with the Nasdaq and S&P remaining in the green all day, while the Dow spent the session in the red reflecting selling pressure on Boeing, financials and oil companies. The Nasdaq, as usual, got a lift from the technology stocks, particularly Tesla. Meanwhile, with the U.S. Presidential election campaign heating up, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have aggressively ramped up their efforts to reach out to as many prospective voters as they can before polling on November 3.
The Dow sank 86.11 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 27,844.91, while the Nasdaq spiked 110.42 points or 1.00 percent to end at 11,129.73 and the S&P 500 rose 9.14 points or 0.27 percent to close at 3,381.99.
The major European markets shook off early inconsistency to finish higher on Monday. Germany's DAX added 19.32 points or 0.15 percent to 12,920.66, while London's FTSE climbed 37.40 points or 0.61 percent to 6,127.44 and the CAC 40 in France rose 9.01 points or 0.18 percent to 4,971.94.
Crude oil prices shrugged off early weakness on Monday to jump higher, recovering from news of output increase and demand drop. WTI crude futures rose $0.57 or 1.34 percent to $42.76 a barrel.
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