Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed on Wednesday, following losses on Wall Street that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down for a ninth straight day.

Investors in Asia were assessing trade data from Japan ahead of the Bank of Japan's interest rate decision later this week.

The country's exports grew 3.8% in November year-on-year, beating economists polled by Reuters' forecasts for a 2.8% increase. Imports, meanwhile, fell 3.8%, well below expectations for a 1% expansion.

The figures put Japan's trade balance in deficit at 117.6 billion yen ($765.2 million), higher than expectations for a 688.9 billion yen deficit.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 opened down 0.4%, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.1%.

South Korea's Kospi rose 0.6%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.4%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded up 0.1%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index futures were at 19,872, up from the HSI's last close of 19,700.5.

Asian traders await the People's Bank of China's benchmark lending rate due on Friday. The one-year LPR affects corporate and mostly household lending in China, while the five-year LPR serves as a benchmark for mortgage rates.

In Tuesday's trading, the blue-chip Dow recorded its first nine-day decline since 1978.

The 30-stock average fell 267.58 points, or 0.61%, to 43,449.90. The S&P 500 fell 0.39% to close at 6,050.61, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.32% to close at 20,109.06.

The Dow's losing streak began a day after it closed above 45,000 for the first time earlier in the month and comes as the broader market is recovering.

The S&P 500 hit a new high on Dec. 6 and is less than 1% off that level. The Nasdaq hit a record on Monday.

Driving the Dow's decline was a rotation into technology stocks and out of some old-economy stocks that surged in November following Donald Trump's historic election win.
Source: CNBC