Asian markets mixed as number of new COVID-19 cases spikes in China

Asian markets came under pressure Thursday as the number of new coronavirus outbreak victims soared in China.

China’s Hubei province reported nearly 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 due to a change in diagnosis methodology, according to a statement by Hubei officials, which was reported by other media outlets such as the New York Times. Chinese officials said the change was made so that more patients could receive treatment, but the new numbers threw more uncertainty at the severity of the outbreak and China’s ability to contain it.

“The China announcement has shaken Asia’s confidence this morning” and “has poured a sizeable cold bucket of reality onto investors,” Jeffrey Halley, senior Asia-Pacific market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note. “The argument that it was a one-off adjustment versus the integrity of China’s data collection has left Asian stock markets in somewhat of a limbo.”

Japan’s Nikkei

NIK, -0.14%

  retreated 0.1% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index

HSI, -0.30%

  slipped 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite

SHCOMP, -0.71%

  declined 0.6% and the Shenzhen Composite

399106, -0.77%

  fell 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi

180721, -0.24%

  advanced 0.3%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan

Y9999, +0.15%

 , Singapore

STI, -0.19%

 , Malaysia

FBMKLCI, -0.28%

  and Indonesia

JAKIDX, -0.77%

  were mostly lower. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200

XJO, +0.21%

  inched up 0.2%.

Among individual stocks, SoftBank

9984, -5.09%

  and Nissan

7201, -1.54%

  fell in Tokyo trading, while Honda

7267, +1.13%

  and Inpex

1605, -0.14%

  rose. In Hong Kong, Country Garden

2007, +0.56%

  and Tencent

700, +0.97%

  advanced, while CSPC Pharmaceutical

1093, -1.78%

  and China Life Insurance

2628, -1.42%

  fell. Samsung

005930, +0.33%

 rose in South Korea, while Beach Energy

BPT, -3.17%

  sank in Australia.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks ended higher, with all three major benchmarks registering all-time closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

DJIA, +0.94%

  rose 275.08 points, or 0.9%, to end at 29,551.42, while the S&P 500

SPX, +0.65%

  added 21.70 points or 0.7%, to finish at 3,379.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index

COMP, +0.90%

  ended at 9,725.96, a gain of 87.02 points, or 0.9%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

YM00, -0.44%

 futures were down 119 points, or 0.4%, to 29,405.

Benchmark crude oil

CLH20, +0.00%

  was flat $51.14 a barrel. Brent crude oil

BRNJ20, -0.20%

  , the international benchmark, slipped 0.3% to $55.63 a barrel.

The dollar

USDJPY, -0.28%

  fell 0.3% to 109.76 Japanese yen from 109.89 yen on Wednesday.