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Asia-Pacific stocks mixed as Wall Street declines from record highs

by Asia Insider

SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday trade after major indexes on Wall Street snapped their multi-day winning streaks overnight.

Mainland Chinese stocks were higher in early trade: The Shanghai composite gained 0.3% while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.633%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.83%.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.57% in morning trade on Wednesday, after surging more than 2% on Tuesday to close at a level not seen since August 1990, according to data from Refinitiv. The Topix index dipped 0.73%.

Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.24%. Shares in Australia fell, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.76%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.38% higher.

Wednesday is the final trading day in 2020 for stocks in Japan and South Korea as their markets will be closed on Thursday.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 89.815 as it slipped below the 90 level.

The Japanese yen traded at 103.41 per dollar, having strengthened from levels above 103.8 against the greenback seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7629, following a bounce this week from around the $0.756 level.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.39% to $51.29 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 0.52% to $48.25 per barrel.

Source: CNBC

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