People walking through the neon lit night streets of Sinchon in the heart of Seoul, South Korea’s vibrant capital city.
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Asia-Pacific markets were mostly down Wednesday as investors brace for U.S. President Donald Trump to roll out fresh tariffs this week.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded around the flatline while the Topix declined 0.56%. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.42% and the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.77%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.24% higher.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.41% while mainland China’s CSI 300 traded flat.
U.S. stock futures moved higher as Wall Street awaits the expected rollout of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday.
Overnight in the U.S., the three major averages closed mixed. The S&P 500 added 0.38% to close at 5,633.07 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.87% and ended at 17,449.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 11.80 points, or 0.03%, to settle at 41,989.96
While markets are likely to be volatile in the near term, UBS analysts expect news flow to become “more positive” toward the second half of the year.
“We think investors can use market swings to build long-term exposure. Investors should therefore consider taking advantage of market dips to buy into broad U.S. equities and companies exposed to AI,” the investment bank wrote in a note.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
