Asia-Pacific stocks slip; oil drops more than 2%

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific declined in Thursday trade, with Australia's April trade data expected later in the day.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan shed 0.52% in early trade while the Topix index fell 0.65%. South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.8%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.46%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.34% lower.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 2.3% to $113.62 per barrel. U.S. crude futures dropped 2.45% to $112.44 per barrel.

Those losses came after the Financial Times reported Saudi Arabia is ready to pump more oil if Russian output declines. That comes after European Union leaders agreed earlier this week to ban most Russian crude imports by the end of the year.

Australia is set to release its April trade data at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN on Thursday.

Ahead of the data release, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.717, off levels above $0.72 seen recently.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.75% to 4,101.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 176.89 points, or 0.54%, to 32,813.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.72% to 11,994.46.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 102.556 after a recent jump from below 102.

The Japanese yen traded at 130.19 per dollar, weaker as compared with levels below 128 seen against the greenback earlier this week.