March 7, 2016 - 1:30 PM EST
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Asian Markets Lower On Weak China Trade Data

CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets, led by

China
, are in negative territory on Tuesday, with some of the markets erasing early gains following the release of weak trade data from
China
. The overnight surge in crude oil and iron ore prices had earlier boosted resources stocks.

Data released Tuesday showed that

China's
exports in February fell 25.4 percent in dollar terms from a year ago, while imports declined for a sixteenth straight month.

The Australian market slipped into negative territory, after opening higher following the surge in crude oil and iron ore prices. Banks and mining stocks are among the major losers.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 31.50 points or 0.61 percent to 5,111.30, off a high of 5,182.50 in early trades. The broader All Ordinaries Index is declining 32.10 points or 0.62 percent to 5,172.60.

In the mining space, BHP Billiton is declining 0.2 percent and Rio Tinto is down 0.8 percent, paring initial gains.

Fortescue Metals has signed a preliminary agreement with

Brazil's
Vale to pursue long-term opportunities through joint ventures. Under the deal, Vale could also take a minority stake in Fortescue Metals, or invest in its existing or future mining assets. However, Fortescue Metals is losing almost 7 percent after rising earlier.

BC Iron is gaining 21 percent and Arrium is up 33 percent after iron ore prices rose 19 percent to post their biggest one-day gain on record.

In the oil sector, Oil Search is adding almost 1 percent, Woodside Petroleum is advancing more than 1 percent and Santos is up 0.2 percent.

Gold miner Newcrest Mining is adding more than 1 percent and Evolution Mining is higher by more than 2 percent.

Meanwhile, the big four banks - Westpac Banking, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking - are lower in a range of 0.2 percent to 0.9 percent.

In economic news,

Australia
will see February results for the indexes for business confidence and conditions from NAB.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar is higher against the

U.S.
dollar on Tuesday following the jump in iron ore prices. In early trades, the local unit was trading at US$0.7470, up from US$0.7400 on Monday.

The Japanese market is notably lower following the mixed cues from Wall Street and as a stronger yen dragged down exporters stocks.

In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 287.28 points or 1.70 percent to 16,624.04, off a low of 16,622.22 earlier.

Among the major exporters, Toshiba is losing almost 6 percent, Sony is down more than 3 percent, and Canon as well as Sharp are declining more than 1 percent each.

Automaker Toyota is declining more than 1 percent. Suzuki Motor said it will issue 200 billion yen in convertible bonds and utilize most of its proceeds towards expanding its operations in

India
. The company's shares are losing almost 4 percent.

In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 3 percent.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone will likely offer more than 400 billion yen or $3.52 billion to acquire Dell's IT services business, according to the Nikkei business daily. Shares of Nippon Telegraph are down more than 2 percent.

SoftBank Group is adding 0.6 percent after the company said Monday that it will reorganize its domestic and foreign operations under separate holding companies.

In the oil space, Inpex is losing 1 percent and refiner JX Holdings is down almost 2 percent despite the surge in crude oil prices overnight.

Among the other major decliners, SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings is losing 5 percent, while Tokyo Gas and Ajionomoto are lower by almost 3 percent each.

On the economic front, the Cabinet Office said in Tuesday's revised reading that

Japan's
gross domestic product was down an annualized 1.1 percent on year in the fourth quarter of 2015. That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.6 percent, following last month's preliminary reading that suggested a contraction of 1.4 percent.

On a quarterly basis, GDP dipped 0.3 percent - which also marked an upward revision from 0.4 percent. GDP added 0.3 percent in the three months prior.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan said that the total value of overall bank lending in

Japan
was up 2.2 percent on year in February, coming in at 496.957 trillion yen. That follows the upwardly revised 2.4 percent increase in January.

The Ministry of Finance noted that

Japan
had a current account surplus of 520.8 billion yen in January - shy of forecasts for a surplus of 700 billion yen, following the 960.7 billion yen surplus in December.

In the currency market, the

U.S.
dollar traded in the mid 113 yen-level on Tuesday, down from Monday's close in the upper 113 yen range in
Tokyo
.

Elsewhere in

Asia
,
Shanghai
is down almost 3 percent, while
South Korea
and
Hong Kong
are down 1 percent each.
Taiwan
,
Singapore
,
Indonesia
and
Malaysia
are down with modest losses. Bucking the trend,
New Zealand
is marginally higher.

On Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Monday, with the Dow rising for a fifth consecutive session on gains in the energy sector that helped offset declines in big technology stocks.

The Dow industrials rose 65.28 points or 0.4 percent to 17.072.68 and the S&P 500 gained 1.6 points or 0.1 percent to 2,001.63. However, the Nasdaq Composite finished 8.8 points or 0.2 percent lower at 4,708.25.

The European markets ended lower Monday on disappointing German factory orders data and weak Eurozone investor confidence. The DAX of

Germany
dropped 0.46 percent, the CAC 40 of
France
fell 0.32 percent and the FTSE 100 of the
U.K.
declined 0.27 percent.

Crude oil prices rose on Monday after a deal to freeze output from a number of major producers. April WTI oil climbed $1.98 or 5.5 percent to settle at $37.90 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Source: Equities.com News (March 7, 2016 - 1:30 PM EST)

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