SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday morning trade following losses on Wall Street with the S&P 500 ending its seven-day winning streak.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses among the region’s major markets, falling 0.9%. Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng made its debut in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with shares rising nearly 2% from their issue price in the early moments of trading.
Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with the Shanghai composite slipping 0.19% while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.333%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.75% while the Topix index declined 0.52%. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.68%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.58%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.46% lower.
S&P 500 ends winning streak
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.2% to 4,343.54 — snapping a seven-day winning streak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 208.98 points to 34,577.37 while the Nasdaq Composite closed at a new record, rising 0.17% to 14,663.64.
Oil prices dip
Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours following a plunge overnight, with international benchmark Brent crude futures shedding 0.19% to $74.39 per barrel. U.S. crude futures declined fractionally to $73.31 per barrel.
Crude prices were volatile overnight. After jumping to the highest in six years, gains were wiped out, with U.S. crude losing more than 2%, while Brent tumbled more than 3%. Those swings followed an indefinite postponement of talks between OPEC and its oil-producing allies after the group failed to reach an agreement on its output policy for August and beyond.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.537 following a recent bounce from below 92.1.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.45 per dollar, stronger than levels above 110.8 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7489, lower than levels above $0.756 seen yesterday.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC