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Asian shares mixed, reverse early gains echoing Wall Street

Posted January 18, 2018 6:00 am

By YURI KAGEYAMA

People are reflected on an electronic stock indicator of a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Shares were broadly higher in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) The Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) - Asian shares were mixed Thursday, with some indexes erasing earlier gains that had echoed a rally on Wall Street. Traders are awaiting the release of Chinese GDP figures later Thursday.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.4 percent to finish at 23,763.37. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 6,014.60 after zigzagging during the day, and South Korea's Kospi was down less than 0.1 percent at 2,514.78. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped nearly 0.1 percent to 31,958.55, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.6 percent to 3,466.70. Shares in Taiwan rose while indexes in Southeast Asia were mostly higher.

CHINA FACTOR: The region is watching for the release of fourth quarter GDP and other data from China later in the day. Analysts have forecast a slight slowdown for the last quarter.

WALL STREET: Technology, financial and health care related shares helped push the Dow, Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq composite to record higher, wiping out the market's modest losses from a day earlier. The Dow surged 1.3 percent to 26,115.65. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.9 percent to 2,802.56 and the Nasdaq added 1 percent to 7,298.28. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 0.9 percent, to 1,586.66.

THE QUOTE: "Risk appetite returned to the U.S. on Wednesday, feeding into gains for equity indices ... expected to transpire to Asia. A packed data day nevertheless lies ahead with much of the attention set on the release of China's Q4 GDP later in the day," Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore, said in a commentary.

ENERGY: Benchmark crude rose 4 cents to $64.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It added 24 cents to $63.97 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 8 cents to $69.30 a barrel.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 111.15 yen from 110.77 yen late Wednesday in Asia. The euro was unchanged at $1.2207.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/yuri%20kageyama

People walk in front of an electronic stock indicator of a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Shares were broadly higher in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) The Associated Press

People wait to cross a street in front of an electronic stock indicator of a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Shares were broadly higher in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) The Associated Press

People walk past an electronic stock indicator of a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Shares were broadly higher in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) The Associated Press

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