Forexpros – Asian stocks were mixed after the closing bell on Thursday.
At the close of Asian trade, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.99%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index shed 0.77%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was trading 0.66% down.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that Japanese retail sales fell more-than-expected to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -2.6% last month from 0.6% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 0.7%.
Analysts had expected retail sales to fall at annual rate of -0.8% last month.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was upbeat. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a gain of 1.13%, S&P 500 futures pointed to an increase of 1.12% and Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a rise of 1.06%.
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