Asian markets were mixed in early trading Thursday as the number of new coronavirus outbreak victims soared in China.
China’s Hubei province reported nearly 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 due to a change in diagnosis methodology, the New York Times reported. Chinese officials said the change was made so that more patients could receive treatment, but the new numbers threw more uncertainty at the severity of the outbreak and China’s ability to contain it.
“The China announcement has shaken Asia’s confidence this morning” and “has poured a sizeable cold bucket of reality onto investors,” Jeffrey Halley, senior Asia-Pacific market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note. “The argument that it was a one-off adjustment versus the integrity of China’s data collection has left Asian stock markets in somewhat of a limbo.”
Japan’s Nikkei
NIK, -0.20%
retreated 0.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
HSI, -0.14%
slipped 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, -0.53%
declined 0.5% and the Shenzhen Composite
399106, -0.69%
fell 0.7%. South Korea’s Kospi
180721, +0.04%
advanced 0.3%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan
Y9999, +0.28%
, Singapore
STI, -0.19%
, Malaysia
FBMKLCI, -0.24%
and Indonesia
JAKIDX, -0.62%
were mixed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO, +0.01%
inched up 0.1%.
Among individual stocks, SoftBank
9984, -2.92%
and Nissan
7201, -1.65%
fell in Tokyo trading, while Honda
7267, +1.20%
and Inpex
1605, +0.38%
rose. In Hong Kong, Country Garden
2007, +1.49%
and Tencent
700, +1.12%
advanced, while CSPC Pharmaceutical
1093, -3.03%
and China Life Insurance
2628, -1.82%
fell. Samsung
005930, +0.99%
rose in South Korea, while Beach Energy
BPT, -2.94%
sank in Australia.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks ended higher, with all three major benchmarks registering all-time closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, +0.94%
rose 275.08 points, or 0.9%, to end at 29,551.42, while the S&P 500
SPX, +0.65%
added 21.70 points or 0.7%, to finish at 3,379.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP, +0.90%
ended at 9,725.96, a gain of 87.02 points, or 0.9%.
Benchmark crude oil
CLH20, +0.29%
rose 17 cents to $51.34 a barrel. Brent crude oil
BRNJ20, +0.02%
, the international benchmark, gained 6 cents to 55.85 a barrel.
The dollar
USDJPY, -0.20%
fell slightly to 109.88 Japanese yen from 109.89 yen on Wednesday.
Source : MTV
