Asian shares mixed despite fresh records on Wall Street

Asian shares mixed despite fresh records on Wall Street

TOKYO (AP) “” Asian shares were mixed on Monday on renewed caution despite a record high finish on Wall Street last week driven by hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine and relief for the global economy.Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was up less than 0.1% at 26,657.18. Other markets quickly lost early gains, with South Korea's Kospi down 0.3% at 2,624.86. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped nearly 0.8% to 6,550.80. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.2% to 26,848.91, while the Shanghai Composite rose 1.3% to 3,451.31. Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, noted that despite ups and downs investors are looking toward the arrival of vaccines for a gradual return to business as usual. ADVERTISEMENT"Vaccines offer the promise that the major disruptions of the pandemic will fade from the scene in 2021. Economic life will gradually heal; the world will start to move on from all the human suffering that the virus has wrought,“ said Innes. One bit of encouraging news for the region came in the purchasing managers' index, or PMI, for China's manufacturing sector, which showed the nation where the pandemic all started continues to recover, with its manufacturing sector growing. In a half day of trading that