A flag of Japan flies near cargo containers at Tokyo’s Odaiba Waterfront on August 6, 2020.
BEHROUZ MEHRI | Contributor | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Tuesday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average reach a record close amid a strong start to the earnings season.
Investors in Asia will asses trade data out of Japan in the morning and job numbers out of Australia set for release later in the day.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.22% in early trading, while the broad-based Topix was up 0.58%.
Japan’s exports fell 1.7% in September compared to the same period last year, surprising economists polled by Reuters who expected a 0.5% growth rate. It’s the first time that exports contracted this year and was down sharply from a revised growth rate of 5.5% in August.
September’s import growth came in at 2.1% also missing expectations of economists who expected growth of 3.2%. The figure was down from August’s growth of 2.3%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2% in early trading.
Australia’s unemployment rate for the month of September is expected to remain unchanged from August at 4.2%.
South Korea’s Kospi was trading up 0.3%, while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 20,482, higher than the HSI’s last close of 20,286.85.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is set to report earnings later Thursday. TSMC’s results will be in focus after poor sales forecasts from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML drove down global chip stocks.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones gained 337.28 points, or 0.79%, to ended at 43,077.70.
The S&P 500 added 0.47% to 5,842.47, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.28% to close at 18,367.08.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
