The busiest pedestrian crossing in the world
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Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday after a sell-off in the previous session, with Japanese stocks falling. Nikkei 225 Index South Korea's KOSPI was among the biggest losers.
The Nikkei index fell 0.73%, while the broad Topix index rose slightly, after the release of Japan's wage data for July.
The country's average monthly cash income rose 3.6% year-on-year, a weaker gain than the 4.5% rise in June.
Real wages rose 0.4% year-on-year, rising for the second straight month after rising 1.1% in June.
The strong wage report gives the Bank of Japan more room to raise interest rates, which could put pressure on stocks. BoJ board member Hajime Takata said the central bank “should continue to raise interest rates if it can confirm that companies will continue to increase spending and wages,” Reuters reported.
Other economic data coming from the region includes Singapore retail sales figures.
Separately, Australian telecoms company Optus has received the green light from the country's Competition and Consumer Commission for its proposed regional network and spectrum-sharing deal with rival TPG Telecom.
Optus, owned by Singapore We will assassinateTPG, an Australian telecoms company, announced the deal in April, after lobbying against a similar merger between TPG and Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms company.
the Hang Seng Index China's stock index fell 0.33%, while the CSI 300 index rose slightly.
Shares of some Chinese developers rose on optimism that the country is considering two-stage interest rate cuts to support the struggling property sector. China Funky Logan Group shares rose 1.5%, while its shares added 1.32%.
China’s financial regulators proposed Wednesday cutting interest rates by as much as $5.3 trillion on outstanding mortgages to reduce borrowing costs for millions, while easing pressure on its banking sector, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
South Korea Cosby Shares of the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1%. SK hynix rose 3.36%. The South Korean chipmaker is set to start mass production of its 12-layer HPM3E chips by the end of September, the company’s president and head of its AI infrastructure division said Wednesday.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.18%. Exports from the country in July rose 0.7% on the month while imports fell 0.8% compared to the previous month.
In the United States, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell for the second straight session.
The broad-based index lost 0.16%, while the technology-heavy index fell 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the most mixed, rising 0.09%.
CNBC's Samantha Sobin and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
