Asia Markets Trade Mixed; India Expected to Raise Repo Rates

This is CNBC Live Blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific markets mixed on Thursday, as Wall Street digested

ADP's latest private payrolls report

The employment growth rate in March was lower than the previous month.

According to Reuters' poll of economists, India's central banks is also expected increase its repurchase rates by 25 basis points. This will bring the rate to 6.75%.

The Australian

S&P/ASX 200

The only index to gain in Asia was the Nikkei, which rose by 0.1% while the majority of other Asian benchmark indices declined.

Japan's

Nikkei 225

The Topix index also fell by 1.04%. South Korean

Kospi

The Kosdaq fell by 0.46%, but the Dow dropped 0.51%.

Hong Kong

Hang Seng index

Hang Seng futures were trading at 20,421, compared with Tuesday's closing price of 20,274.59.

China will also release private surveys of its service sector activity.

Overnight in the U.S.

Nasdaq Composite

The broad-based index fell 1.07% in its third consecutive session.

S&P 500

The dip was 0.25. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The, however was boosted by a strong performance by health care stocks, which closed 0.24% higher.

This report was contributed by CNBC's Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Sarah Min.

As recession fears rise, chip stocks drop

The latest jobs data, which is closely linked to the health and performance of the economy, signaled investors that the recession could be closer than they thought.

The S&P 500 as a whole fell 2% on Wednesday, with the biggest drop coming from

Advanced Micro Devices

,

KLA Corp

You can also find out more about the following:

On Semiconductor

Each is down approximately 3%.

Nvidia

,

Analog Devices

You can also find out more about the following:

Applied Materials

Each fell more than 2%.

The decline in semiconductor share -- and Nvidia specifically -- came as

Alphabet

It is a secret

The latest artificial intelligence supercomputer

It is said that the AI training market could be dominated by the same chipmaker.

Samantha Subin

Drops in imports, orders and prices cause the Services Index to fall

Due to sharp drops in exports, new orders and prices in March, the U.S. service sector moved closer to contraction.

The ISM Services Index fell to 51.2%. This represents the number of companies reporting growth. A reading of less than 50% indicates contraction. This index was last at this level in December. Dow Jones reported that economists were expecting 53.8%. The reading for February was 55.1%.

Imports dropped 9 points, while export orders fell 18 points. Prices sub-index shows a cooling of inflation, with a drop of 6.1 percentage points at 59.5.

The ISM Manufacturing Index is in a contractionary state, with a reading of 46.3% on Tuesday for March.

--Jeff Cox

U.S. Trade Deficit Rises, Pointing to Weaker Q1 Growth

The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. Trade Deficit rose more than anticipated in February, as exports showed a sharp drop.

The trade deficit increased to $70.5 Billion for the month. This is an increase of $1.9 Billion from January, and higher than the Dow Jones estimate.

Exports dropped to $251.2 billion (a 2.7% decrease), as autos, consumer products, and capital goods were all down. Imports decreased by $5 billion.

The numbers indicate that the economy could grow slower than expected during the first quarter. This is because exports increase GDP while imports decrease it. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow tracker indicates a gain of only 1.7% over the period. This is down from 3.5% just two weeks earlier.

--Jeff Cox

Yields dip after ADP report misses expectations

Treasury yields lost their gains for the day and turned red after the ADP Private Payrolls Report showed a weak labor markets.

The yield on 2-year Treasury fell by 8 basis points, to 3,751%. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped more than 3 basis point to approximately 3.3%.

The yields of a product are opposite to the price.

-- Jesse Pound

Financial activities see a big drop in hiring during March

According to a report by

ADP is a payroll processing company.

.

Payrolls increased by only 145,000 in March, down from 261,000 for February and below Dow Jones' estimate of 210,000.

Total employment fell due to losses in financial services, professional and business service and manufacturing. The top hiring sectors were leisure and hospitality, commerce, transportation and utilities, and construction.

These numbers are released ahead of the nonfarm payrolls data due out on Friday, which is expected show an increase of 238,000.

--Jeff Cox