Asian Stocks Mixed After Wall Street Posts First Gain This Week

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region were trading mixed in early Friday trade after Tesla Inc.'s surge helped Wall Street post its first session of gains this week.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 was 33 points, or 0.41%, higher at 8,240, while the Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 277 points, or 0.74%, at 37,912 as of 5:40 a.m. Futures contracts pointed to a negative start in Hong Kong while an index of US-listed Chinese shares fell on Thursday.

Stocks in China paused their winning streak in the previous session with the benchmark gauge ending over 1% lower. Earlier this week, banks in the nation slashed key policy rates to revive the economy.

China’s recent fiscal measures fall short of what is needed to address deflationary risks, Bloomberg News reported quoting one senior International Monetary Fund official.

Japanese stocks are expected to trade with caution ahead of the country's general election on the weekend. The support for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is steadily dwindling, which may threaten policy continuity, according to Bloomberg News. Ahead of the election, Japan's central bank governor said that it wont hike interest rates in its meet next week.

Meanwhile, stocks in the US snapped their losses to end higher, buoyed by a rally in Tesla shares. The Elon Musk-owned electric vehicle giant gained as much as 22% on strong earnings and forecast, the biggest rally since May 2013, according to Bloomberg News.

Recent data showed that US jobless claims fell and were recorded at 2.27 lakh for the week ended Oct. 19, against the estimate of 2.42 lakh. Following this, the US 10-year yields fell 4 basis points to 4.20%.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.21% and 0.76%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.33%.

Crude oil prices rose after a two-day fall as traders look out for any potential Israel retaliatory strike on Iran. Brent crude was trading 0.70% lower at $74.90 a barrel as of 6:00 a.m. IST. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.68% at $70.67.