Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region diverged on Thursday as investors weighed new developments related to the coronavirus pandemic, including the progress of a huge U.S. stimulus package.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 4.5%, giving back some of the previous session’s gains, while benchmarks in Hong Kong and Shanghai retreated less than 1%. Australia’s ASX 200 rose 2.3%.
Asian markets were mixed Thursday.
Photo: Clive Rose/Getty ImagesSingapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index shed 1% after the country forecast that the economy could contract by up to 4% in 2020 in its first full-year recession since 2001.
Volatile stock markets reflect investors grappling with a lot of conflicting information, said Vikas Pershad, portfolio manager at M&G Investments. “The markets are not broken. What we’re seeing is a very large disconnect between the present world and the future that they’re pricing in,” he said.
The U.S. Senate approved an estimated $2 trillion stimulus package late on Wednesday in Washington. The bill will now move to the House as Congress seeks to give American families and businesses a financial shield against the ravages of the pandemic.
Mr. Pershad said the U.S. government’s plan to directly support consumers was positive for both investor sentiment and corporate fundamentals in Asia. “A lot of supply chains in Asia are tied to the U.S. consumers,” he said, citing smartphones and semiconductors.
The number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped 66,100, with a death toll of more than 940, led by a continued surge of infections in New York. Globally, there were more than 470,000 cases Thursday, with a death toll surpassing 21,200, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks scored their first consecutive two-day gains since February on the back of the stimulus deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.4% while the S&P 500 added 1.2%.
S&P 500 futures traded 1.0% lower on Thursday in Asia. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note lost 0.058 percentage point to 0.803%. Bond yields fall as prices rise.
In Seoul, the Kospi Composite index declined 1.1%, even after the Bank of Korea unveiled a program to stabilize local financial markets by offering an unlimited amount of short-term funding to financial institutions via repurchase agreements, or repos.
The dollar was little changed, with the WSJ Dollar Index declining less than 0.1% to 95.44. The index tracks the greenback against 16 other currencies.
Write to Chong Koh Ping at chong.kohping@wsj.com
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