Investing.com - Asian equities were mixed in Wednesday’s morning trading sessions and largely range-bound, as volatility remain low ahead of release of the U.S. inflation report and Lunar New Year Holiday.
Major U.S. stock indexes rose slightly overnight, recording a third consecutive winning streak as investors await the inflation report scheduled to come out later today. Dow jumped 0.16%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq also gained 0.26% and 0.45% respectively.
Japan took centre stage in early trading session as the country’s 4Q GDP missed estimate and grew 0.5% vs the expected 1% estimate. Nikkei traded lower following the release of the data and was 0.6% lower by xam ET.
Although not a directional driver, China’s January non-financial outbound investment in January jumped 39.7% YoY to $10.8 billion, compared with a 35.7% fall last January. Mainland Chinese markets were mixed with Shenzhen Composite trading 0.2% higher but Shanghai Composite down 0.4%. Hang Seng extended its gain and was up 0.5%.
S&P/ASX 200 gave up its early gains and was 0.1% down. Corporate calendar was the focus for investors with Domino’s Pizza Group Plc (AX:DMP) down 8.3% and Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU) plunged 11.1% following disappointment results. Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR)’s shares jumped 4.2% after announcing its CEO had step down.
Elsewhere, Korea-listed Lotte Corp, holding company of Lotte Group, saw its shares down more than 7% to an 8-week low after group chief was arrested for bribery. Lotte’s affiliates also traded lower early on Wednesday, with Lotte Shopping (KS:023530) dropping 5.5%, Lotte Chilsung Beverage (KS:005300) and Lotte Confectionery (KS:004990) both fell more than 2%. KOSPI was up 0.92%.