On August 6, 2020, a Japanese flag flew near a container on the Odaiba waterfront in Tokyo.
Behruzmehri | Contributor | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Tuesday, with stocks rising on Wall Street and the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching a record close in a strong start to earnings season.
Asian investors will evaluate trade data Japan will release in the morning, and Australian employment data will be released later in the day.
Japanese Nikkei 225 Index It was up 0.22% in early trading, while the Topix gained 0.58%.
Japan’s exports fell 1.7% in September compared with the same period last year, surprising economists polled by Reuters who had expected growth of 0.5%. This is the first time this year that exports have shrunk, and it has fallen sharply from the revised 5.5% growth rate in August.
Import growth in September was 2.1%, also lower than economists’ expectations of 3.2%. The figure was lower than August’s 2.3% growth rate.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2% in early trade.
Australia’s unemployment rate in September is expected to be unchanged from August, at 4.2%.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3%, while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat.
Hongkong Hang Seng Index The futures index reported at 20,482 points, higher than the Hang Seng Index’s last closing price of 20,286.85 points.
British Semiconductor Earnings are scheduled to be released later Thursday. TSMC’s performance will be in focus after Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML’s poor sales forecast led to a decline in global chip inventories.
The U.S. Dow Jones Index rose 337.28 points, or 0.79%, to close at 43,077.70 points overnight.
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.47% to 5,842.47 points; the Nasdaq Index rose 0.28% to close at 18,367.08 points.
—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
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