Investing.com - Asia-Pacific shares experienced mixed performance as trading opened on Thursday, following similar trade on Wall Street overnight.
By 10:25 am AEST (12:25 am GMT) the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia shed 0.5%, South Korea's KOSPI 200 remained steady and Japan's Nikkei 225 saw a 0.2% gain.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its winning streak, marking its sixth consecutive day of gains with a 0.4% increase. Meanwhile, the tech-centric NASDAQ Composite fell by 0.2%, and the S&P 500 remained virtually unchanged, marking its smallest movement since 2018. Despite the mixed performance, all three indexes have started May on a positive note following a decline in April.
Investors are eagerly awaiting next week's reports on consumer and producer inflation, following a recent slowdown in hiring that has renewed optimism for lower interest rates. Despite previous expectations for rate cuts this year being dashed due to higher-than-anticipated inflation reports, the April jobs report has reignited hope.
In the corporate sphere, ride-hailing giant LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) saw its shares jump by 7.1% after reporting increased revenue and a narrowed loss for last quarter. However, its competitor Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) saw a 5.7% drop in shares after posting an unexpected quarterly loss. Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) shares also took a significant hit, dropping 19% after the company projected a slowdown in sales growth for this quarter.
In the commodities market, Brent crude oil saw a 0.5% increase to US$83.58 per barrel, and gold also experienced a slight increase of 0.1% to US$2,310.63.
In the bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds was up at 3.99% while the 10 Year yield was down at 4.29%. US Treasury notes were mixed, with the 2 Year yield up at 4.84% and the 10 Year yield down at 4.49%.
Turning to Asia, Chinese shares saw a decline, led by software technology and property stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also closed lower, weighed down by property stocks. Japanese stocks ended lower due to a drop in electronics and brokerage stocks. Indian shares ended slightly lower, weighed by the financial sector.
Over in Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.5%, while the Stoxx Europe 600 index, CAC 40, and DAX 40 all experienced gains