Asia: Stocks mixed as traders mull Yellen speech

Asia stocks were mixed on Tuesday as investors continued to digest Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole at the end of last week.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed up 0.85% to 23,016.11 points, the Shanghai composite rose 0.15% to 3,074.68 points while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.07% to 16,725.36 points.

At the same time oil prices gained on the back of a weaker dollar with Brent crude rising 0.62% to $49.57 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increasing 0.76% to $47.34 per barrel at 0958 BST.

The dollar retreated from a rally on Monday as traders mulled Yellen’s speech and looked ahead to the non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

“Fed chief Yellen made it very clear during her speech in Jackson Hole last week that the timing of the next rate hike will very much depend on the strength of the economic data in the coming weeks,” said Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets.

“Consequently should employment figures turn out very strong again this Friday the likelihood of an interest rate increase as early as September will go up markedly.”

On the company front, a weaker yen gave Japanese exporters a boost.

Chinese banks Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China rallied ahead of reporting earnings.

Shares in China Southern Airlines declined after reporting a 10% drop in first half net income.