Asia was set for another mixed session on Thursday, with markets in China, South Korea, and Hong Kong shut for public holidays. That followed a record-high close for U.S. equities overnight.
Australia’s SPI futures traded at 5,647, which was a touch lower than the ASX 200’s previous finish at around 5,652.05.
Australian trade and retail sales data for August are due later in the day.
Nikkei futures in Chicago traded at 20,700 and Osaka futures were at 20,650. That pointed to a slightly higher open for the Nikkei stock average, which ended at 20,626.66 in the last session.
“It seems markets are treading water ahead of [U.S. nonfarm] payrolls on Friday given more than usual uncertainty over the numbers due to possible hurricane effects,” Tapas Strickland, an economist at the National Australia Bank, wrote in a morning note about the overnight session in the U.S.
The dollar traded at 93.496 against a basket of currencies, climbing from an earlier low of 93.259. The greenback was still off from levels above 93.600 reached earlier in the week.
“Stronger than expected U.S. data helped the greenback shake off its initial weakness to end the New York trading session much closer to its highs than lows,” Kathy Lien, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management, said in a note. Lien added that the greenback “should actually be trading much higher given the unexpected strength of the non-manufacturing ISM report.”
Among other currency majors, the Japanese yen traded at 112.77 to the dollar, the Australian dollar fetched $0.7862 and the euro last traded at $1.1759.
The Indian rupee last traded at 65.02 to the dollar, slipping slightly from levels above 65.1, after the Reserve Bank of India held rates on Wednesday, which was largely in line with expectations. The central bank, however, reduced India’s growth outlook for fiscal 2018 from 7.3 percent to 6.7 percent.
Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note that it was unlikely the central bank would “take up any further easing measures.”
“This has been reaffirmed by the [Monetary Policy Committee] statement, which highlighted an inflation trajectory that is expected to rise above the central bank’s target,” the analysts wrote.
