Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Thursday after former President Donald Trump won the White House, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
NBC News projects that Trump will win at least 291 Electoral College votes, including key swing states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 reversed gains to lose 0.25%, but the broad based Topix was up 0.95%.
The yen weakened to a intraday high of 154.7 against the dollar on Wednesday, its weakest level since July 30, but recovered marginally on Tuesday to 154.41.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.19% lower, with the small cap Kosdaq also down 1.45%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index initially fell, but reversed course to climb 0.9%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 also went into positive territory with a 0.5% gain.
Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks mainly fell Wednesday as Trump’s victory looked increasingly certain.
In China, state media reported that the National People’s Congress standing committee, the country’s parliament, had reviewed the plan to raise local government debt for another day, after initially discussing the plan on Monday.
Local authorities in China have historically been responsible for much of public services spending, but have struggled financially as revenue from land sales to developers has dropped.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.41% lower.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major benchmarks hit record highs following Trump’s victory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,508.05 points, or 3.57%, to a record close of 43,729.93. The last time the index saw a gain of more than 1,000 points in a single day was in November 2022.
The S&P 500 also hit an all-time high, popping 2.53% to 5,929.04. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.95% to a record 18,983.47.
