Japan’s Osaka is the 43rd most expensive city to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
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Asia-Pacific stocks were mostly down Wednesday, even as Wall Street gained overnight with the S&P 500 closing at a record high as investors appeared to look past tariffs and inflation headwinds.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 started the day 0.13% lower, while the broader Topix index traded flat.
Business sentiment for Japanese manufacturers rose for the second month in February, results from the Reuters Tankan poll indicates. The manufacturers’ sentiment index rose to plus 3 — its highest level since November — from plus 2 in January.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi began the day 0.71% higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 0.31%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index last traded at 22,775, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 22,976.81.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day 0.56% lower, a day after the country’s central bank cut rates by 25 basis points to 4.10%, marking its first easing since November 2020.
Elsewhere, in Asia-Pacific, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to cut rates by 50-basis-points to 3.75% in its policy meeting later in the day, a Reuters’ poll indicates.
The central bank has cut rates by 125 basis points since last August, but is still expected to cut more to boost an economy in recession with still-rising unemployment.
Overnight in the U.S., all three indexes rose, with the S&P 500 closing at a record high after stocks rallied seconds before the closing bell. The broad market index gained 0.24% to a record close of 6,129.58, after touching an intraday record of 6,129.63 before the final bell. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.07% at 20,041.26, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 10 points, or 0.02%, to finish the session at 44,556.34.
The energy sector was the best-performer in the S&P 500, rising 1.9%, while tech stocks also ticked up.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
