Asia markets mixed as investors parse through Japanese auto earnings

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific markets are mixed on Wednesday, mirroring moves in Wall Street's Tuesday session.

Investors in the region will parse through earnings reports including those of Japanese giants Toyota and Mitsubishi, as well as Singapore's UOB.

Traders will also brace for key economic data out of China and Japan on Thursday, with China releasing its April trade data and Japan announcing its March pay statistics.

Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.33% on its open, while the broad based Topix was down 0.3%.

South Korea's Kospi extended gains and rose 0.1% after leading Asian markets on Tuesday. The small-cap Kosdaq saw a larger loss of 0.34%.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 traded close to the flatline.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 18,411, poised to extend losses after the HSI on Tuesday snapped a 10-day winning streak and ended at 18,479.37.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a fifth straight day of gains and rose marginally, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.13%. In contrast, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%.

— CNBC's Pia Singh and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.

Macroeconomic uncertainties and mounting geopolitical tensions have given gold — the classic "safe haven" asset — a boost.

Gold prices topped $2,400 an ounce in April as tensions in the Middle East escalated. Spot gold is currently trading around 12% higher over the year to date.

Kevin Teng, CEO of wealth manager Wrise Group, said he expects the precious metal to yield substantive returns in the long term, and picked his favorite stocks and ETFs to cash in.

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— Amala Balakrishner

U.S. stocks have been rather volatile in the past month,