The port at Busan, South Korea, in 2020. South Korea and Japan are especially dependent on shipping lanes that traverse the South China Sea, linking them to the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and beyond.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Tuesday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 reach new record highs.
Investors assessed trade data out of South Korea, which showed trade surplus surging to $6.7 billion in September, up from $3.7 billion in August.
South Korea’s Kospi as well as the small-cap Kosdaq were hovering near the flatline.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 0.6%, bouncing back after falling more than 1% earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.6%.
China had gotten disappointing September trade data after markets closed Monday, with exports rising 2.4% from a year ago and imports adding 0.3%, both sharply missing expectations.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.6%, while the broad-based Topix rose 1.1%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8%.
On Wall Street, the broad market S&P climbed 0.77% to 5,859.85, while the 30-stock Dow advanced 201.36 points to 43,065.22, ending the session above the 43,000 mark for the first time.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.87%, closing at 18,502.69.
— CNBC’s Yun Li and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
