Asia report: Shares lower on lacklustre Wall Street as traders eye Powell speech

Asian shares closed lower on Wednesday as a lacklustre Wall Street and mixed economic data dampened investor enthusiasm.

Traders were also waiting on a key Thursday speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, widely expected to set out the US central bank’s next steps in the face of the coronavirus pandemic which shows no sign of slowing in the country.

Japan’s Nikkei was virtually flat, closing 0.03% lower at 23,290 points, while the Shanghai Composite was down 1.3% at 3,329.74. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.12% to 25,458.

Australian shares broke two straight sessions of gains on Wednesday as the rising coronavirus death toll in the state of Victoria hit sentiment, although this was offset by extra federal government stimulus and hopes for a local vaccine.

The S&P/ASX 200 index settled 0.7% lower at 6,116.4 after declining 1.3% in intraday trade. Victoria recorded its second-deadliest Covid-19 daily death toll on Wednesday, while the state government’s intention to extend a state of emergency by another year also weighed on the market.

Overnight data showed US consumer confidence in August dropped unexpectedly to a more than six-year low.

Oil prices held overnight gains as US producers closed offshore output in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Laura on the Gulf coast.

Producers evacuated 310 offshore facilities and shut 1.56m barrels per day of crude output, 84% of Gulf of Mexico’s offshore production - near the 90% outage that Hurricane Katrina brought 15 years ago.

Brent crude futures were near a five-month high at $45.95 a barrel, while US crude futures were steady at $43.31 a barrel.