SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets rose in early trade on Friday, as Wall Street mostly lifted overnight supported by strong earnings. Alibaba, however, disappointed investors as it missed earnings expectations.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.38%, while the Topix was up 0.25%. Investors are on the lookout for an expected announcement of a record $488 billion stimulus package in Japan later on Friday, with Reuters citing media reports.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.70%. Tech stocks jumped, with LG Electronics soaring over 10%. SK Hynix rose around 1%.
Australia’s ASX 200 was also in positive territory, edging up 0.30%.
Investors will be watching Chinese markets on Friday after a broad sell-off in tech stocks the day before. The Nasdaq-style technology board, Hang Seng tech index, sold off nearly 3%. Major tech names declined sharply, with Alibaba dropping over 5%, and JD and Baidu also falling.
On Thursday, Alibaba missed revenue and earnings expectations for the September quarter, as slowing economic growth in China weighed on results. It reported revenue of 200.69 billion yuan ($31.4 billion), less than the 204.93 billion yuan estimated but still a 29% year-on-year rise. The company reported earnings per share of 11.20 yuan, less than an estimate of 12.36 yuan and a 38% year-on-year decline.
Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares fell 11.1% on Thursday.
U.S. markets were mixed overnight, although strong earnings lifted some indices. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher to 4,704.54 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to 15,993.71. The Dow fell 60 points, or 0.1%, dragged lower by big losses in Cisco shares.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.3% at one point before recovering, after strong earnings from Nvidia, the world’s largest chipmaker by market value, and various retailers. Other chipmakers also rose as Nvidia’s strong results lifted optimism for the sector.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.544 — falling sharply from levels above 95.8 earlier.
The Japanese yen weakened slightly, trading at 114.31 per dollar. The Australian dollar was at $0.7277, down marginally from levels around $0.728 earlier.
In the oil market, U.S crude declined again after rising in the previous session following a drop to six-week lows. It was down 0.32% around $78.76 per barrel in the morning during Asia hours.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
