(Bloomberg) -- Stocks in Asia traded mixed Wednesday after a rebound on Wall Street, with investors continuing to mull the economic dangers from the spreading coronavirus.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped about 2.5% as markets reopened Wednesday, with the city’s stocks catching up to the global slide since last week. China futures advanced. U.S. equity futures ticked up as a senior Trump administration official said the White House didn’t call airlines and has not asked for a suspension of flights between the U.S. and China. Treasuries were flat after retreating on Tuesday. Shares climbed in South Korea, Australia and Japan. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). rose in after-hours trading after its sales forecast topped estimates. The offshore yuan strengthened.
Equities are showing signs of stabilizing after a slide that wiped about $1.5 trillion off the value of world stocks since Jan. 20. With earnings continuing to roll in, investors are looking for signs of how the disease is affecting operations in China. More than 5,974 people have been infected in China and at least 132 have died.
“We are seeing economic data points that support this continued recovery,” Susan Schmidt, a fund manager at Aviva (LON:AV) Investors, told Bloomberg TV. “The coronavirus might have tamped that down just a bit, but overall management teams are coming back and giving a pretty positive outlook and feeling confident about their businesses.”
Elsewhere, oil rose after suffering from heavy declines in the wake of the coronavirus spreading.
Here are some events to watch out for this week:
- Wednesday brings reports from GE, Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB); Samsung Electronics (KS:005930), International Paper, Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Shell (LON:RDSa) report on Thursday, followed by South Korean chip maker SK Hynix, Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) all on Friday.
- Federal Reserve policy makers on Wednesday are expected to open 2020 the same way they closed 2019 -- by holding rates steady.
- Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) will hold its first-ever Investor Day on Wednesday.
- The Bank of England meeting on Thursday is highly anticipated after a series of dovish comments raised speculation policy makers could lower interest rates.
- The U.S. reports fourth-quarter GDP Thursday.
- The U.K. is scheduled to leave the European Union Friday.
Stocks
- Japan’s Topix index added 0.5% at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo.
- {{28930|FTSE ChChina A50 futures climbed 1.4%.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.6%.
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.5%.
- South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.5%.
- Futures on the S&P 500 added 0.3%. The index rose 1% on Tuesday.
- Euro Stoxx 50 contracts rose 0.2%.
- The yen traded flat at 109.14 per dollar.
- The offshore yuan was at 6.9609 per dollar.
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
- The euro bought $1.1014, down 0.1%.
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries remained at 1.65%.
- Australia’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 1.01%.
- West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $54.03 a barrel.
- Gold was flat at $1,567.11 an ounce.