Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Thursday with Tokyo hitting fresh record highs as the region monitored President Donald Trump's extensive tour through Asia now in China after leadership meetings in Japan and South Korea and ahead of an APEC summit.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.75% and crossed 23.000 to the highest levels since 1981. Also on Thursday Japan reported core machinery orders slumped 8.1%. well below the drop of 1.8% expected for September on month.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.03%, while the Hang Seng index was up 0.91%
China's October consumer prices rose 0.1% on month in October, less than the 0.2% gain seen as food prices dropped from a year ago, data showed on Thursday.
On an annual pace, the gain was 1.9%, higher than the 1.8% seen. Producer prices came in at a gain of 6.9% as expected - moving from a low base a year ago.
China's Tencent has taken a 12% stake in U.S. social media company Snap. The news came after Snap missed third-quarter revenue expectations on Tuesday. Tencent shares advanced 1.5%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday as a rise in tech offset a slump in financials which followed concerns over possible delays to President Donald Trump’s tax plan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,563.98. The S&P 500 closed 0.14% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6789.12, up 0.32%.
With third-quarter earnings nearing an end, political events dominated trading as media reports suggested that the GOP Senate are proposing to make significant changes to the Republican tax plan and considering a one-year delay to corporate tax cuts.
That added to uncertainty concerning progress of the GOP tax plan after Republicans lost key elections in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday. Optimism on tax reform has been on the catalysts supporting the post-election rally in stocks.
Financials, mostly, banks continued to add to losses amid fears of a flattening yield curve –spreads narrow between short end and long end of the curve yield curve – which usually signals a recession.
Some analysts at JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) were quick to downplay the slump in financials as precursor for selloff in equities, insisting that it will likely take a “material weakening” in real growth momentum and/or a break of “super-cap tech” to change the trajectory of the S&P500 in the near-term”.
In corporate earnings news, investors looked ahead to notable companies reporting earnings including Square (NYSE:SQ) and Twenty first Century Fox.