Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday with Sydney and Tokyo down as investors tread water ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting on rates next week.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.84%, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.09%. The Nikkei 225 closed down 1.32%.
In Asia, Japan reported corporate goods prices for November fell 0.1% month-on-month, the eighth straight monthly drop, compared to a fall of 0.3% seen.
Australia said employment data showed a 71,400 jobs gain in November, compared to a drop of 10,000 jobs seen at a participation rate of 65.3%, above the 65% expected, for an unemployment rate of 5.8%, well below the 6% expected.
Also in Australia, annual MI Inflation expectations for December came in at 4.0%, up from 3.5% in November. Separately, the New Zealand dollar held gains Thursday after a cut in the official cash rate of 25 basis points to 2.5% as investors mulled whether the next step was up.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell broadly for the third straight session as a romp in technology stocks and a continued decline in the energy sector offset gains from a proposed mega deal between EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (N:N:DD) and Dow Chemical Company (N:N:DOW), two stalwarts in the chemical industry.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a swing of nearly 275 points on Wednesday, closing at 17,492.30, down 75.70 or 0.43% after gaining nearly 200 points in the morning session.
Investors reacted to a report from the Wall Street Journal that a merger between DuPont and Dow, estimated between $120 and $160 billion, could be completed as early as Thursday. The deal would create the second-largest chemical company ever and result in $3 billion in cost savings for the combined company. Following the merger, the new company could subsequently be split into three divisions consisting of agricultural, material services and specialty product segments. Shares in Dow Chemical jumped 12% to 57.01.
The NASDAQ Composite index lost 75.37 or 1.48% to 5,022.87, amid a major sell-off in a host of prominent tech giants. Shares in Facebook Inc (O:O:FB), Amazon.com Inc (O:O:AMZN), Netflix Inc (O:O:NFLX) and Alphabet Inc (O:GOOGL), popularly known as the FANG stocks, each plummeted more than 1% on the day. While the exact cause of the drop is unknown, rumors persisted that it could have been related to tax-law selling considerations before the end of the calendar year.
The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, fell 15.97 or 0.77% to 2,047.62, as eight of 10 sectors closed in the red. Stocks in the Technology, Financials and Consumer Services sectors lagged, each falling by more than 1% on the day. With the losses, the S&P 500 closed on Wednesday in negative territory for the year.