Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday with Shanghai nearly flat and Tokyo gaining smartly.
The Nikkei 225 rose 1.29%, while the Shanghai Composite eased 0.20% and the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.61% on weak retail sales.
Investors were looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. jobs report for August, for more indications on the strength of the job market and the likelihood of a near-term interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
In Australia, retail sales fell 0.1%, missing an expected 0.4% gain and down for the first time since May last year as food retailing showed no growth and household goods retailing fell for the first time since March. The trade balance for July came in at A$2.460 billion, better than the A$3.1 billion seen and compared to a deficit of A$2.93 billion in June.
Earlier, the August AIGroup services index came in at 55.6, above last month's 54.1 level.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7014, down 0.33%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 120.48, up 0.12%.
In Japan, BoJ board member Takahide Kiuchi said hitting sustained 2% inflation in Japan would be hard via monetary easing alone and he reiterated that massive bond buying by the central bank was distorting prices.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.82%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.83%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 2.46%.
The gains came despite the release of disappointing economic reports from the U.S., as concerns over China's economic outlook began to ease.
Payroll processing firm ADP said non-farm private employment rose by 190,000 last month, below expectations for an increase of 201,000. The economy created 177,000 jobs in July, whose figure was downwardly revised from a previously reported increase of 185,000.
Data also showed that U.S. factory orders increased by 0.4% in July, missing forecasts for a gain of 0.9%.