Asian stocks mixed in quiet holiday trading

Asian indexes were mixed Wednesday in quiet holiday trading after oil prices erased some of its recent gains and the region generally shrugged off the dip in technology stocks on Wall Street.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 inched up less than 0.1 percent to 22,902.75 in morning trading, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.2 percent to 6,079.90. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.3 percent to 2,421.05. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.2 percent to 29,628.99, while the Shanghai Composite stood unchanged at 3,306.09.

WALL STREET: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.84 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,680.50. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 7.85 points, or 0.03 percent, to 24,746.21. The Nasdaq lost 23.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,936.25. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 1.30 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,544.23.

APPLE FACTOR: Apple slid 2.5 percent on Wall Street overnight amid speculation the consumer electronics giant might cut its targets for sales of its latest iPhone. A Taiwanese newspaper had reported iPhone X sales targets may get cut amid weak sales, but that had already largely gotten figured in for Asian trading.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 22 cents to $59.75 a barrel. It gained $1.50 to $59.97 on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, slipped 33 cents to $66.13.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell slightly to 113.27 yen from 113.30 yen late Tuesday in Asia. The euro strengthened to $1.1861 from $1.1859.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/yuri%20kageyama