Japanese and Australian stocks trade mixed

Japanese and Australian markets traded mixed on Thursday, after choppy trade on Wall Street overnight, as data pointing to a contraction in the U.S. economy in the first quarter heightened investors’ fears of a looming recession.

Several Asia-Pacific markets, including South Korea, Hong Kong, China and India were closed for the Labor Day holiday.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 increased 0.58% in early trade while the broader Topix index moved up 0.1%.

The country’s central bank is widely expected to stand pat on interest rates at 0.5% in its two-day monetary policy meeting, which concludes later in the day.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark fell 0.13%.

U.S. futures jumped after two of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks — Meta Platforms and Microsoft — posted their quarterly results.

In extended trading, shares of Meta advanced more than 4% on stronger-than-expected revenue in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s shares surged 8%, after delivering better-than-expected results on the top and bottom lines in the fiscal third quarter, as well as strong results from its Azure cloud business and upbeat guidance.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 and the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average notched their seventh consecutive winning day despite the volatility.

The broad-based market index advanced 0.15% to close at 5,569.06, while the Dow Jones index added 141.74 points, or 0.35%, settling at 40,669.36.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite ended the day flat at 17,446.34.

— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.