Asia markets open lower as Wall Street recovery stalls; investors assess Japan trade data

Asia-Pacific markets opened lower on Thursday as Wall Street declined overnight, while investors assessed trade data from Japan and awaited India's rate decision.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.60%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.77% on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.05%. All indexes had been up earlier in the session before Nvidia and other big technology stocks fell.

Global equities and currencies plunged earlier this week after the Bank of Japan hiked interest rates to their highest levels since 2008, and the U.S. released weaker-than-expected employment numbers.

On Thursday, investors in Asia will assess trade data from Japan and interest rate decision from the Reserve Bank of India.

The Reserve Bank of India is expected to hold rates steady at 6.5% for a ninth straight meeting.

Japan's current account figure for June came in at 1.533 trillion yen, lower than the 1.789 trillion yen expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Japan's Nikkei 225 opened 1.8% lower, while the broad-based Topix dropped over 1%.

The Bank of Japan released a summary of opinions from their monetary policy meeting in July, revealing that some BOJ members had proposed more rate hikes. 

"Assuming that the price stability target will be achieved in the second half of fiscal 2025, the Bank should raise the policy interest rate to the level of the neutral interest rate toward that time," the summary read.

The level of the neutral rate appears to be at least around 1% with the Bank needing to raise the policy interest rate in a timely and gradual manner, it added.

However, Shinichi Uchida, BOJ deputy governor, said on Wednesday that given the recent shocks to stock prices and foreign exchange rates in the country, the bank needs to