Asia-Pacific markets open lower despite rebound on Wall Street; China trade data in focus

Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly lower on Wednesday, despite major averages on Wall Street snapping a three-day stretch of losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.76%, while the S&P 500 was up 1.04%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.03% to close at 16,366.85.

Sentiment was boosted by a rebound in Japanese stocks Tuesday that saw the Nikkei 225 post its best day since October 2008, soaring 10.2%. On Monday, the benchmark suffered its worst session since 1987 amid recession fears, losing 12.4%.

On Wednesday morning, the Nikkei fell 2.3%. Meanwhile, Japan’s broad-based Topix dropped 1.1%. 

Later today, traders in Asia will assess July trade data out of China, with economists expecting exports to grow 9.7% year-over-year compared to June’s 8.6% rise. Imports are expected to grow 3.5% over the same period, a reversal from June’s 2.3% fall.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7% while the Kosdaq gained 0.9%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.3% lower in early trading.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 16,694, higher than the HSI’s last close of 16,647.34.

—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.