Mixed trading on Asian bourses

Bangkok: Shares slipped in Asia on Wednesday, tracking a decline on Wall Street a day after stocks there hit their highest level since the start of August. Tokyo and Mumbai advanced while most other major markets declined. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices edged lower. Trading is tapering off ahead of holidays in the U.S. and Japan on Thursday, with few data releases to drive activity. But news that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI ousted CEO, Sam Altman, was going to return to the company could spur some fresh movement in technology shares. Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has rights to its technology, quickly moved to hire Altman, though its CEO Satya Nadella said the company was open to having him return to OpenAI.

Altman said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that “with the new board and (with) Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with (Microsoft).” San Francisco-based OpenAI said in a statement late Tuesday: “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board” made of former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.

U.S. home sales fell more than 4 per cent in October, while minutes from the latest policy setting meeting of the Federal Reserve showed the central bank in a holding pattern as it assesses the impact of its aggressive interest rate hikes on inflation and the economy overall. Wednesday will bring an update on durable goods orders and a consumer sentiment survey by the University of Michigan.

Asia is also relatively quiet on the data front. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged 0.3 per cent higher to 33,451.83 and the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.1 per cent higher, to 2,511.70. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng shed 0.4 per cent to 17,673.23, while the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.7 per cent, at 3,045.15. Troubled property developer Sunac China Holding’s shares rose 2.3 per cent as state media reported it had completed a restructuring of its $90 billion in debts.