Asia Pacific shares slip; jobs in Australia surge in March

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Shares in the Asia Pacific region traded down on Thursday morning as companies reported better-than-expected earnings stateside. Meanwhile, jobs data in Australia for March came in significantly higher than forecasts.

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In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.39 percent, with shares of conglomerate Softbank Group declining more than 1.7 percent. The Topix index also traded lower by 0.39 percent.

Mainland Chinese shares were tepid in early trade, with the Shanghai composite slipping 0.18 percent and the Shenzhen component fractionally lower. The Shenzhen composite also declined marginally.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also shed 0.34 percent as Hong Kong-listed shares of China Construction Bank declined more than 1 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.75 percent. Industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics saw its stock drop more than 1.8 percent after multiple accounts emerged of its $2,000 folding phone breaking for several users ahead of the device’s retail launch.

Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite index jumped 1.55 percent at the open, according to Reuters. The moves came after privates polls showed incumbent President Joko Widodo likely to win a second term in office as the votes from Wednesday’s election rolled in.

In Australia, the ASX 200 edged up as majority of the sectors gained. The heavily weighted financial subindex rose more than 0.2 percent as bank shares generally advanced.

Australian labor force data came in above expectations on Thursday, with 25,700 jobs added on a seasonally adjusted basis in the month of March as compared to a forecast gain of 12,000 in a Reuters poll.

Following the release of that data, the Australian dollar spiked to $0.7199 before settling at $0.7173.

“The Australian labour market data is crucial for the outlook for the Australian economy, Australian interest rates and the direction of AUD/USD. The RBA has nominated the labour market data as the key guide to their monetary policy outlook,” Richard Grace, chief currency strategist and head of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a morning note.

“Although a stronger than expected Australian labour market result will push AUD higher, participants may be still positioned to sell AUD into rallies because of the medium‑term risk of RBA rate cuts,” Grace said.

Amid the ongoing earnings season stateside, 84.6 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported calendar first-quarter earnings have topped analyst expectations, according to FactSet. This was a highly anticipated earnings season as analysts polled by FactSet expected corporate earnings to have fallen by 4.2 percent in the first quarter.

On the trade front, sources told CNBC on Wednesday that Beijing officials are looking at U.S. President Donald Trump’s upcoming international travel dates that might offer potential for a summit off of American soil. Investors have been watching out for any developments that the two economic powerhouses could be close to reaching a deal to end a protracted trade war.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.023 after slipping from the 97.1 handle yesterday. The Japanese yen traded at 111.91 against the dollar after touching lows around 112.1 in the previous session.

Oil prices slipped in the morning of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract slipping 0.28 percent to $71.42 per barrel and U.S. crude futures shedding 0.13 percent to $63.68 per barrel.

— Reuters and CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.

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