Global Stock Markets Patchy Following U.S. Declines -- Update

Asian stock market results were patchy Thursday following modest overnight declines in the U.S. and Europe, though Japan and China were logging gains.

Disappointing quarterly reports from the likes of Chipotle Mexican Grill and Boeing weighed on stocks Wednesday, bringing at least a momentary pause to this month's strong global gains.

Amid the overnight drop, "confidence is expected to be undermined for Asian equity bourses," said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG Group.

Additionally, investors were displaying caution ahead of anticipated comments from the European Central Bank later Thursday on scaling down bond purchases. ECB President Mario Draghi's press conference is "about the only thing that matters today," said Prakash Sakpal, an Asia economist at ING.

Stock indexes in Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and India were all recently down less than 0.1%.

But New Zealand's benchmark closed down 0.4% after ending a 15-day winning streak Wednesday. It was the index's biggest drop in six weeks. Fletcher Building weighed on the index with a 3.6% decline Wednesday, and then shed another 2.7% Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.3%, reversing some of a late selloff Wednesday that ended the index's record 16-day winning streak.

A firmer yen capped Thursday's stock gains, as some financial names jumped in anticipation of further U.S. interest-rate increases. Daiwa Securities climbed nearly 5% and Nomura rose 2.5%.

The dollar was recently down 0.2% in Asian trading at Yen113.50.

In China, stocks rose after early softness, extending Wednesday afternoon gains that followed the unveiling of members of the country's top governing body.

The Shanghai Composite finished morning trading up 0.5%. Not since Oct. 9, after a week-long holiday in China, has the index closed a day up or down that much as officials had sought market stability for the party congress.

In commodities, gold futures rose 0.2% amid The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index falling 0.1%. U.S. oil futures eased a further 0.1% after dropping modestly overnight, a decline prompted by domestic stockpiles surprisingly rising last week.

Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2017 01:06 ET (05:06 GMT)