The Deal: Asian Shares Trade Mixed
NEW YORK (
) -- Asian markets were mixed again Wednesday, as Shanghai and Hong Kong were both buoyed by reports -- carried on the official
Xinhua
news agency -- that a new Shanghai free trade zone could open as early as next weekend.
Tokyo slipped on fears about a renewed fiscal cliff debate in the U.S. The Nikkei was down 0.8%, at 14,620.53, despite the surge in the price of
Tokyo Electron
, as the market reacted to Tuesday's announcement of Tokyo Electron's $9.4 billion takeover by
Applied Materials
of Santa Clara, Calif.
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Reports Wednesday that China's biggest e-commerce business,
Alibaba Group
, has started to look at a listing in the U.S. instead of Hong Hong came too late for the local market Wednesday. But there's plenty of time for the Hang Seng to react Thursday to the idea that Hong Kong's strict rules banning U.S. style dual class share structures were to blame.
Alibaba's top table, led by founder Jack Ma, reportedly want to be allowed to control the board, in a similar way to
Google's
founders or the Murdoch family at
News Corp.
Europe also has been down ahead of a looming U.S. budget deadline on Oct. 1 and the renewed debate over raising the debt ceiling, as well as the continued concerns that the
Federal Reserve's
taper program has only been delayed for a short time. The FTSE 100 was down over 0.4% mid-morning at 6567.29 .
