Asian stocks today: Markets trade mixed ahead of US job data; HSI falls over 1%, Kospi flat

Asian share markets traded mixed on Thursday, as investors turned cautious ahead of a batch of key US labour market data due later this week.In Hong Kong, the HSI was down 322 points or 1.22%, to trade at 26,136. Nikkei also dipped 579 points to 51,382, a loss of 1.12%. Shanghai traded in green, with a marginal gain of 3 points while Shezhen fell 0.2%. South Korea’s Kospi, meanwhile rose 24 points to 4,575, at 10 AM IST.Sentiment across the region remain muted by a lacklustre handover from Wall Street, where both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 eased back from record highs. Traders in Asia largely paused trading activity as they awaited US figures on job openings and weekly unemployment claims later in the day, followed on Friday by the closely watched non-farm payrolls report. The data is expected to play a central role in shaping expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting at the end of the month, amid debate over whether interest rates could be cut for a fourth consecutive time.Geopolitical developments also weighed on sentiment, with investors assessing the fallout from the United States’ toppling of Venezuela’s president, alongside ongoing tensions between China and Japan. Japanese stocks came under particular pressure after China announced an anti-dumping investigation into imports from Japan of a key chemical used in semiconductor manufacturing. The move followed Beijing’s decision a day earlier to ban exports to Japan of goods with potential military applications, further straining relations between the two countries. Diplomatic tensions have been elevated since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in November that Japan could respond militarily to any attack on Taiwan.In commodities, oil prices edged higher after recording a second consecutive sharp fall on Wednesday. The earlier decline followed reports that Venezuela would ship millions of barrels of crude to the United States after President Nicolas Maduro was removed from office over the weekend. Meanwhile, investors are also watching for a Supreme Court ruling due on Friday concerning the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, a landmark case that challenges the US president’s unprecedented use of powers to impose global levies and strikes at the core of his economic agenda.