Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday after a mixed trading session on Wall Street.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was little changed after the release of disappointing factory and retail sales data. Shares fell in Hong Kong but most other regional benchmarks advanced.
Japanese investors appeared to take in stride the choice of former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to head the ruling Liberal Democrats and thus become the next prime minister.
China Evergrande Group’s shares fell 4.9% as reports said the company, which is struggling to whittle down its debt, was likely to miss another payment on a bond.
Evergrande’s shares had surged Wednesday after it announced it was selling a stake in Shengjing Bank to help repay a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) its debt to the lender based in northeastern China.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.8% to 24,468.38 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed 0.1% to 29,512.20.
The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.6% to 3,558.85 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.7% to 7,319.80. In Seoul, the Kospi climbed 0.5% to 3,075.76.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is used to set interest rates on many kinds of loans, slipped to 1.52% from 1.53%.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 4,359.46 after shedding most of a 0.8% gain. The modest gain came a day after the benchmark index posted its worst drop since May. The index is on pace for its first first monthly loss since January.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also lost momentum, but managed a 0.3% gain to 34,390.72, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gave back 0.2% to 14,512.44.
The Russell 2000 index of small companies also fell, shedding 0.2% to 2,225.31.
Bond yields stabilized after surging over the past week and weighing on the market, especially technology stocks. The higher yields have forced investors to reassess whether prices have run too high for mixed trading, because it makes them look expensive by comparison.
The broader market has lost ground in September, leaving the S&P 500 down 3.6% for the month with one day left to go.
Investors have spent much of the month reviewing a mixed batch of economic data that showed COVID-19 and the highly contagious delta variant’s impact on consumer spending and the employment market recovery.
Investors are still closely watching the Federal Reserve gauge how the slowdown in economic growth will impact the speed of its plan to eventually trim the bond purchases it’s been making to helped keep interest rates low.
Wall Street also has its eye on Washington, where Democrats and Republicans in Congress are wrestling over extending the nation’s debt limit. If the limit, which caps the amount of money the federal government can borrow, isn’t raised by Oct. 18, the country “would likely face a financial crisis and economic recession,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Wednesday.
