Aerial view of Seoul downtown city skyline with vehicle on expressway and bridge cross over Han river in Seoul city, South Korea.
Mongkol Chuewong | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed Wednesday, following gains on Wall Street ahead of a potential U.S. government shutdown as lawmakers continue to wrangle over details of a second temporary spending bill.
Over in Japan, the Bank of Japan released the results for its third-quarter Tankan survey. The Tankan survey measures business sentiment among Japanese companies, and is closely watched by the BOJ.
The index for business optimism among large Japanese manufacturers increased to +14 for the third quarter from +13 in the previous quarter, but was lower than the +15 expected by economists polled by Reuters. The non-manufacturing index held steady at +34.
A positive figure on the Tankan indicates that optimists outnumber pessimists, and vice versa.
Investors in Asia will also look toward the Reserve Bank of India’s rate decision late Wednesday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 sunk 1.05%, while the broad based Topix was down 1.52%.
In South Korea, the blue-chip Kospi was up 0.68%, and the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.77%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.25% in early trade.
Markets on mainland China and Hong Kong were closed for a holiday.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 closed up 0.41% at 6,688.46, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.31% to finish at 22,660.01.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 81.82 points, or 0.18%, to close at 46,397.89 — a fresh closing high.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.