View of Shanghai skyline from a container station.
Yaorusheng | Moment | Getty Images
China stocks rose Thursday as its imports surged past estimates and exports rose in line with expectations, while the broader Asia-Pacific market was mixed.
China’s imports climbed 8.4% in April, above a Reuters poll estimate of a 4.8% year-on-year rise. Exports rose 1.5% year-on-year in April in U.S. dollar terms, meeting expectations.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index rose 0.95% after the data, extending gains from a 0.2% rise at the open and closing at 3,664.56. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.16%.
Separately, real wages in Japan fell 2.5% year on year in March, marking a 24th straight month of decline.
Investors are looking for any signs of the “virtuous cycle” of increasing wages and prices envisioned by the Bank of Japan.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.34% to 38,073, marking two straight days of losses, while the broad-based Topix gained 0.26% to finish at 2,713.46.
South Korea’s Kospi retreated from a one-month high, falling 1.2% to close at 2,712.14, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.26% to 870.15.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.06%, ending the day at 7,721.6.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its winning streak to six days, as investors shook off some weakness in tech.
The Dow added 0.44% to notch its longest winning run of 2024. The S&P 500 inched lower and closed near the flatline, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 0.18%.
Investors are also digesting a slew of Federal Reserve commentary. Boston Fed President Susan Collins said on Wednesday that the Fed’s interest rate policy will likely need to remain at its current level until inflation moves “sustainably” toward the central bank’s 2% target.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report.