Asia markets trade mixed as key Wall Street benchmarks rise amid fresh Trump tariff threats

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Thursday, after key Wall Street indexes rose amid fresh tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.35% higher.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded around the flatline while the Topix added 0.4%. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.82%, while the small-cap Kosdaq dipped 0.1%.

Shares of Japanese convenience store operator Seven & i Holdings fell over 10% after the proposed acquisition by its founding family failed to secure financing, according to a company filing. This comes after the Yomiuri newspaper reported that Seven & i has abandoned the management buyout plan, which was pegged at over 8 trillion yen ($53.69 billion).

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.18% while mainland China’s CSI 300 slipped 0.2%.

Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from the European Union. This comes on the back of the president’s declaration to go forward with tariffs on Mexico and Canada after a monthlong postponement.

Investors will be keeping an eye on Asian chip stocks after technology darling Nvidia’s fourth-quarter earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The chipmaker also provided strong guidance for the current quarter and indicated its confidence in continuing its historic run of growth fueled by artificial intelligence.

“While markets have begun to react to these developments, deep tariff risks are still being underpriced,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note released Wednesday.

Kamakshya Trivedi, the investment bank’s head of global FX, rates and EM strategy, said that the scope for U.S. equities to fall further and a stronger move in the dollar still exists if Trump “walks the walk” on broader and bigger tariffs.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 eked out gains, snapping a four-day run of losses to close at 5,956.06 The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 188.04 points, or 0.43%, to end at 43,433.12. The 30-stock average was earlier up as much as 245.34 points, or about 0.6%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.26% and ended at 19,075.26.

—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Hakyung Kim and Brian Evans contributed to this report.