An aerial view of a container ship leaving the shipyard in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province.
Future publishing | Future publishing | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell across the board, mirroring moves on Wall Street as investors assessed trade data from China and Australia.
China’s November trade figures surprised expectations, with exports rising 0.5% year-on-year and imports falling 0.6%. Economists polled by Portal expected exports to fall 1.1% from a year ago and imports to rise 3.3%.
The world’s second-largest economy’s trade surplus also rose to $68.39 billion, beating forecasts of $58 billion.
Separately, oil prices rebounded slightly after hitting their lowest level since June, with the January West Texas Intermediate contract gaining 0.66% to trade at $69.82 a barrel.
The February Brent contract also gained 0.7% to trade at $74.88 a barrel.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 pared losses, falling 0.07% to close at 7,173.3 after the country’s trade surplus widened to A$7.13 billion in October, but missed Portal poll estimates of 7, AU$5 billion.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.76% to close at 32,858.31 after posting the biggest gains in Asia on Wednesday, while the Topix slipped 1.14% to 2,359.91.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.13% to close at 2,492.07, while the small-cap Kosdaq closed down 0.77% at 813.2.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.66%, paring losses in its final hour, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.24% to hit a new four-year low of 3,391.28.
In the U.S., all three major indexes fell overnight on Wednesday as investors assessed data suggesting falling inflation while awaiting the jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.19%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.39% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.58%.
It was the third day of losses for the 30-stock Dow and the S&P 500 – the first since October for both indexes.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.