In Asia, futures tipped a moderately lower open for Japanese equities. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were down 0.12 percent at 19,705 and Osaka futures were off 0.05 percent at 19,720. Both were a tad below the Nikkei 225’s previous close of 19,729.28.
Australian SPI futures were 0.47 percent lower at 5,758 compared to the benchmark index’s last close of 5,785.102.
Indonesia markets are closed for a public holiday.
Equities on Wall Street closed slightly higher on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.12 percent, or 25.88 points, to close at 22,024.87, the S&P 500 gained 0.14 percent, or 3.50 points, to end at 2,468.11 and the Nasdaq advanced 0.19 percent, or 12.10 points, to close at 6,345.11.
In corporate news, airline Cathay Pacific announced a first-half loss of HK$2.05 billion ($262.07 million). The company attributed its poor performance in the first half of the year to increased competition and higher fuel prices. Cathay Pacific also added in its release that it didn’t expect the operating environment to “improve materially” in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, telecommunications operator China Unicom will raise almost $12 billion from investors such as Alibaba and Baidu as part of a push for mixed ownership reform. Shares of the company’s Hong Kong-listed unit were halted from trade Wednesday and will resume Thursday.
Shares of Tencent could also be set for moves during the trading day after the company’s second-quarter profit grew 70 percent to 18.23 billion yuan ($2.72 billion). Tencent is the company behind popular mobile game “Honour of Kings.”
Here’s the economic calendar for Thursday (all times in HK/SIN):
- 7:50 a.m.: Japan July trade data
- 8:30 a.m.: Singapore July trade data
- 9:30 a.m.: Australia July employment
- 10:00 a.m.: Philippines second-quarter GDP
- 4:30 p.m.: Hong Kong July unemployment rate