Investing.com - Asian markets were mixed in morning trade on Wednesday as lingering concerns over the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on market sentiment.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.7% and 0.9% respectively by 10:25 PM ET (02:25 GMT).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.5%.
High-level officials from the U.S., including top trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, are due to travel to Beijing later this week for a fresh round of trade discussions.
Lighthizer told National Public Radio in an interview this week that he wants to get a deal, but he’s “not necessarily hopeful” one will happen. “We’re working on it,” Lighthizer said. “If there’s a great deal to be getting, we’ll get it. If not, we’ll find another plan.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.5%. Nintendo Co Ltd (T:7974) fell about 1% in the morning, gave back some of its gains earlier in the week following the report of new console models.
South Korea’s KOSPI edged up 0.1%. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930) traded near flat after issuing a rare profit warning the previous day.
Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.2%. The New Zealand dollar declined more than 1% against the U.S. dollar after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept the official cash rate on hold at at 1.75% as expected earlier, but added that the next move in interest rates is likely to be down.
Fear of a global economic slowdown has put stock markets under pressure since late last week. The appearance of an inverted yield curve, which can be an early indicator of a recession, fueled worries.
On Wednesday, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that profits at China's industrial firms in the first two months of 2019 dropped 14% year-on-year to 708.01 billion yuan ($105.50 billion), the worst contraction since late 2011.
The fall in profits was mainly due to price contractions in key industrial sectors such as auto, oil processing, steel and chemical industries, Zhu Hong of the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data.
He also noted that the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays this year also had a more significant negative impact on the business environment than in 2018.