Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed on April 5

Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Tuesday, while Australia’s central bank kept its cash rate target unchanged. 

Japanese stocks were mixed on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.19% to end its trading day at 27,787.98. The Topix index dropped 0.23% to close at 1,949.12.

In South Korea, the Kospi finished its trading day fractionally higher at 2,759.20. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.19% on the day to 7,527.90.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore’s Straits Times index added 0.39% as of 3:15 p.m. local time. Markets in mainland China, as well as Hong Kong, were closed on Tuesday for a holiday. 

U.S. stocks on Tuesday

U.S. stocks were mostly flat on the second day of the week as traders continued to assess the odds of a recession and the situation in Ukraine that is keeping oil over $100 a barrel.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was about flat, taking a breather after two gains in a row. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.4%, pulling after a 1.9% gain in the prior session. Besides, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded about 100 points higher, 0.3%, helped by gains in Chevron and Merck.

Shares of Twitter jumped more than 6% on news that Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors. It comes after Musk revealed a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which saw its best day since Twitter’s IPO on Monday.

While the largest stake among outside shareholders, his stake is considered a passive interest, which often means the holder isn’t trying to control or influence the company. Elon Musk’s decision to invest in Twitter comes at a critical time for Twitter. Its CEO Parag Agrawal who replaced Jack Dorsey in November said he would focus on metrics and accelerate Twitter’s work to bring new products to customers. 

Agrawal is also under pressure to reach Twitter’s aggressive internal goals, including growing Twitter to 315 million monetizable daily active users by the end of 2023. 

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