Asia-Pacific stocks mixed as investors monitor Ukraine situation

SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday morning trade as investors continue to monitor the situation surrounding Ukraine.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan declined 0.3% in morning trade while the Topix index shed 0.4%.

Japan's January exports came in far below expectations, with official data released Thursday showing a 9.6% year-on-year rise for that month. That was against expectations by economists for a 16.5% gain, according to Reuters.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.29%.

Shares in Australia rose in morning trade, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.36% ahead of January jobs data expected at 8:30 a.m. HK/SIN.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.22% higher.

In geopolitical developments, NATO on Wednesday accused Russia of increasing the number of troops it has gathered at the Ukrainian border, a day after Moscow claimed it had begun withdrawing some of its military units.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 54.57 points to 34,934.27 while the S&P 500 rose fractionally to 4,475.01. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.11% to about 14,124.10.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.701 following a recent decline from above 96.

The Japanese yen traded at 115.34 per dollar, stronger than levels above 115.6 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7197, continuing its general upward trek since a bounce from below $0.71 earlier this week.