Asia markets poised to fall even as Wall Street goes into Thanksgiving with a rally
This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.
Asia-Pacific markets are set for a lower open after Wall Street went into the Thanksgiving holiday with a broad based rally.
More than half of the stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange were up Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also saw greater participation, with 62.9% of the stocks in the index rising. Small - and mid-caps outperformed Wednesday, rising 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
In Asia-Pacific, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.37% in early trade, extending losses from the day before. The country saw its business activity contract at a faster pace in November, according to flash estimates from Judo Bank.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. .Australia's composite purchasing managers index slid to 46.4, down from October's 47.6.
Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 17,692, pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's close of 17,734.6.
Japan's markets are closed due to a public holiday.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rebounded from Tuesday's losses, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield also briefly falling to its lowest level in two months.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly fell to 4.369% Wednesday morning, the lowest level since Sept. 22. It later recovered and was last little changed at 4.41%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.53%, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.41%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.46%.
— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
Keep an eye on earnings as economy starts to slow, investor says
Stocks are riding high on hopes the Federal Reserve is done with its tightening campaign. However, one market observer warned investors to keep an eye on earnings as the economy starts to show signs of slowing.
"At some point, you know, of course, a slowdown becomes a victim of its own success, so to speak," Jack Ablin, investment chief at Cresset Capital, said Wednesday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." The investor pointed to same-store sales growth that has matched inflation over the last 12 months.
"What that really means is there's no volume growth and that all of the revenue increases that a lot of retailers and other companies have enjoyed over the last 12 months was simply pricing power," Ablin added. "Well, if now prices roll over, and we see that downtrend, that could start to hurt earnings and profit margins."
The investment chief recommended investors stick to high-quality growth companies with healthy, and growing, dividends. He favors names such as medical device maker Medtronic , water company Ecolab and pharmaceutical stock AbbVie .
— Sarah Min
Energy stocks lag
Energy stocks underperformed in the S&P 500 on Wednesday.
The sector slipped 0.4%, making it the worst performing of the 11 that comprise the broad index. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has climbed about 0.3%.
EOG Resources and Baker Hughes led the sector down with drops larger than 1% each. Occidental Petroleum and Halliburton were the next worst performers, with both shedding about 0.9%.
About two out of every three stocks in the energy sector traded lower. On the other hand, Valero Energy was the best performer in the sector, climbing 1.7% in the session.
— Alex Harring
U.S. crude declines after OPEC delays meeting
U.S. crude prices declined Wednesday after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries delayed a key meeting on production cuts.
The West Texas Intermediate contract for January fell 67 cents, or .86%, to settle at $77.10 a barrel, while the Brent contract for January fell 49 cents, or .59%, to settle at $81.96 a barrel.
OPEC delayed the meeting of energy ministers until next Thursday. The organization didn't provide a reason, but delegates told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia and its allies are having trouble convincing Angola and Nigeria to accept lower output targets.
- Spencer Kimball
Initial jobless claims come in lower than expected
Initial jobless claims for the week ended Nov. 18 came in at 209,000, down 24,000 from the previous week. That print is also 20,000 less than a consensus estimate from Dow Jones.
The data serves as another indication that the U.S. economy is resilient despite higher interest rates.
— Fred Imbert
