Shanghai Pudong district at sunrise
Dukai Photographer | Moment | Getty Images
Hong Kong and Korea shares traded higher while Japan equity benchmarks were underperformers in mid-morning trade Thursday.
The Caixin China general manufacturing purchasing managers’ index released Thursday showed factory activity in the world’s second-largest economy expanded for a third-straight month in January — extending a divergence with official data released Wednesday that pointed to a fourth-monthly contraction.
Other private surveys of manufacturing activity in Asia, outside of China and Japan, though, showed that the worst of the manufacturing slowdown of 2023 could be over.
Late Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it was unlikely to cut rates in March.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank would likely not be comfortable enough with the path of inflation by its next meeting in March to cut interest rates.
“Based on the meeting today, I would tell you that I don’t think it’s likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting to identify March as the time to do that. But that’s to be seen,” Powell said.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1%, on track to snap an eight-day winning streak and retreating from an all-time high.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.8%, while the Topix slipped 0.7%. In South Korea, the Kospi was 1.2% higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq shed 1.2%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 1.5%, while China’s CSI 300 was up 1%, rebounding off near 5-year lows.
In the U.S., all three major indexes lost ground after the Fed announcement, with the Nasdaq Composite leading losses and tumbling 2.23%.
The broad-market S&P 500 fell 1.61%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.82%.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.