Asia-Pacific stocks mixed despite Dow sailing to another record close overnight

Shares in Asia-Pacific struggled for direction in Wednesday morning trade, following gains on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones Industrial Average to yet another record close.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan dipped about 0.1% in early trading while the Topix index climbed 0.38%. Over in South Korea, the Kospi shed 0.25%.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell into negative territory as it declined 0.16%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.05% lower.

Investors will monitor interest rates in the bond market, with U.S. Treasury yields rising at the fastest new year pace in two decades. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to as high as 1.71% on Tuesday, last sitting at 1.6507%.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 214.59 points to 36,799.65. Other major indexes stateside declined amid the spike in bond yields as investors rotated out of tech stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.33% to 15,622.72 while the S&P 500 dipped fractionally to 4,793.54.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	29323.59	21.8	0.07
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	23289.84	0	0
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	7567	-22.8	-0.3
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3632.33	0	0
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2961.86	-27.38	-0.92
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	10092.14	21.24	0.21

Currencies

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.262 — still holding on to gains following its climb from below 96 earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 116.13 per dollar, having weakened yesterday from levels below 115.5 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7239, following its recent bounce from levels below $0.72.