Investing.com - Shares in Asia were mixed on Thursday with China recovering slightly after a downbeat start to the day.
The Shanghai Composite dropped at the start only to recover after the break, up 0.24%.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.54%, while the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.11%.
In Australia, the NAB quarterly business confidence survey fell to flat from plus-4 in the previous quarter, while conditions gained to plus-11 from plus-5.
The quarterly business outlook is always a little out of date but is a good sector indicator. It covers more than 900 companies compared with between 300 and 600 in the monthly survey. The outcome is usually consistent with monthly surveys.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell slightly on Wednesday as a sell-off among Health Care and Biotechnology stocks offset gains from a GM and Boeing-inspired rally.
Shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (N:N:VRX) fell as much as 25% after a report from short-seller Citron Research accused the $50 billion pharmaceutical giant of a wide range of improprieties, including creating fake invoices for deceiving auditors and booking artificially high revenues.
Separately, the company disclosed on Wednesday that it has recently been served subpoenas by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts and the Southern District of New York stemming from investigations into the pricing information it provided to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed territory late in Wednesday's session to close lower, while weakness in the Health Care sector weighed heavily on both the NASDAQ Composite index and the S&P 500 Composite index. The Dow lost 48.50 or 0.28% on Wednesday to close at 17,168.61, while the NASDAQ fell by 40.85 or 0.84% to end the session at 4,840.12.
On the S&P 500, all 10 sectors closed in the red, as it fell 11.83 or 0.58% to 2,018.94. Stocks in the Energy, Basic Materials and Health Care industries lagged. All three major indices still remain on track to end the month with their strongest October in four years.