Asian indexes closed lower on Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrials closed above the 22,000 level and as the U.S. dollar staged a slight recovery.
The Nikkei 225 fell back 50.78 points, or 0.3%, to 20,029.26
The Hang Seng Index slipped 76.37 points, or 0.3%, to 27,531.01
Standard Chartered shares listed in Hong Kong were in the spotlight after the bank reported earnings after the market close on Wednesday. Standard Chartered said pretax profit in the first half rose 93%, although the bank announced it would not begin paying dividends. The bank's stock fell 7.6% by late afternoon local time.
In other corporate news, Toshiba announced in a statement that its flash memory unit, Toshiba Memory Corporation, would be unilaterally investing in production equipment after negotiations with SanDisk fell through. The company added it would increase its output ratio of 3D flash memory to 90% of its capacity in 2018. Shares of Toshiba closed down 0.8%
On the earnings front, Singapore's CapitaLand reported total profit after tax and minority interests for the second-quarter was S$579.3 million ($425.7 million U.S.), a 97% rise on year. CapitaLand stock was down 0.5% on the day.
Hong Kong's CK Hutchison and Cheung Kong Property Holdings were also among the Asian companies reporting results Thursday.
The U.S. dollar softened against the yen, with the greenback last fetching 110.65 yen.
Australian markets were driven by weakness in the materials and telecommunication services sub-indexes. The heavily-weighted financials sub-index declined 0.4%
Thursday market movers included Rio Tinto's Australia-listed shares, which closed down 2.5% even though the miner reported Wednesday that first-half profit more than doubled on year. Rio Tinto also announced a $1-billion U.S. share buyback.
CHINA
The CSI 300 dropped 33.02 points, or 0.9%, to 3,727.83
Caixin services Purchasing Managers’ Index information released Thursday reflected that July service sector growth in China rose more slowly compared to the month before. The services PMI figure for July came in at 51.5, a tad below June's 51.6 reading. The figure for July also matched April's reading, which was the lowest seen since May 2016
In other markets
In Taiwan, the Taiex index subtracted 49.39 points, or 0.5%, to 10,469.88
In Korea, the Kospi index decreased 40.78 points, or 1.7%, to 2,386.85
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index backtracked 5.88 points, or 0.2%, to 3,342.92
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 gained 5.44 points, or 0.1%, to 7,753.75
In Australia, the ASX 200 declined 9.08 points, or 0.2%, to 5,735.12
