Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Asian shares traded mixed on Thursday, following a lacklustre lead from Wall Street, where stocks fell on renewed concerns about US growth.
Weak retail sales data for April, along with poor earnings from US retailers like Macy’s and JC Penny weighed on investor sentiment, sending the Dow Jones and S&P 500 lower, reports BBC.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 0.8% to 19,613.82 as the dollar weakened against the yen.
The dollar was buying 119.15 yen.
That compares with 119.83 yen in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Shares of car parts maker Takata were down 3.8% after Toyota and Nissan said on Wednesday that they would recall 6.5 million more cars over potentially exploding air bags made by the company.
Bucking the trend were shares of Toshiba, up 2.6%, after the company said the mark-down in its profits in the past three years due to accounting irregularities will be around 50bn yen ($419.5m; £266m).
The announcement eased investors’ fears that the investigation would lead to a bigger scandal.
Chinese shares were trading mixed with the Shanghai Composite down 0.2% to 4,366.9, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded flat at 27,250.3.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.7% at 5,677.7.
In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index was up 0.2% at 2,118.76.
