Live updates for Asia markets: Japanese trade, Australia jobs

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Tuesday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average reach a record closing high amid a strong start to the earnings season.

Investors in Asia will be donkeys Trade data Outside Japan in the morning and jobs numbers outside Australia.

Japan Nikki 225 The index fell 0.6%, while there was little change in the broad Topix index.

Japan’s exports fell 1.7% in September compared to the same period last year, which surprised economists polled by Reuters who had expected a growth rate of 0.5%. This is the first time exports have contracted this year, and fell sharply from the revised growth rate of 5.5% in August.

Import growth in September of 2.1% was also contrary to economists’ expectations, who expected growth of 3.2%. This figure is lower than the growth recorded in August by 2.3%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8% in early trading.

Australia’s unemployment rate for September was 4.1%, down slightly from a Reuters poll which expected it to remain unchanged from August at 4.2%.

Australia’s labor participation rate rose slightly to 67.2% in September, up 0.1 percentage point from August and as expected.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.1%, while the Kosdaq small-cap index fell 0.3%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index Futures were at 20,482, higher than the HSI’s last close of 20,286.85.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Earnings are scheduled to be announced later on Thursday. TSMC’s results will be in focus after weak sales forecasts from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML sent global chip stocks lower.

In the United States overnight, the Dow Jones Index rose 337.28 points, or 0.79%, to close at 43,077.70 points.

The S&P 500 added 0.47% to 5,842.47, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.28% to close at 18,367.08.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Hahn and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.