SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Tuesday morning trade following gains overnight on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 to record closing highs.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.72% in early trade while the Topix index advanced 0.45%. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.14%.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia, on the other hand, slipped 0.26%. Investors will continue to monitor the Covid situation in Australia, with the country's largest cities currently under lockdown.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded around the flatline.
Overnight stateside, the Dow jumped 110.02 points to 35,625.40 while the S&P 500 gained 0.26% to 4,479.71. The Nasdaq Composite lagged as it dipped 0.2% to 14,793.76.
Investors will look ahead to U.S. retail sales data, set to be released Tuesday stateside by the Census Bureau. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are calling for a 0.3% decline for last month, following June's showed a surprise reading of a 0.6% jump.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.616 — still struggling to recover from a recent drop from above 92.8.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.30 per dollar, stronger than levels above 109.5 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7335, following yesterday's drop from above $0.735.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.32% to $69.73 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.36% to $67.53 per barrel.
