Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Wednesday as the first full press conference by President-elect Donald Trump since the November election gets set to take center stage on the same day as explosive allegations about ties to Russia.
The Trump press conference comes as news agencies report that briefing materials prepared for President-elect included information that initially circulated among Trump opponents and was passed to U.S. intelligence agencies making damaging allegations about his dealings with Russians. Trump took to Twitter to deny the reports.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.25%, while the Nikkei 225 gained 0.36%. Toshiba shares jumped 5.89% to Y305.4 each, after the Japanese conglomerate met creditors on Tuesday and asked them not to use provisions in debt agreements to call in their loans early so as to give the company time to work out a plan, Reuters reported.
Toshiba announced on Dec. 27 that it might book a goodwill charge of several billion dollars related to cost overruns at a U.S. nuclear plant construction business.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.22%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.73%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors led shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Goods and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.16%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.00%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.36%.