Asian shares mostly lower after fresh Wall St records

TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Friday, with Chinese markets weighed down by concerns over property developers.

Benchmarks fell in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul but rose in Sydney and Taipei.

Jitters over troubles in the property sector flared after Kaisa Group, a Chinese developer, announced that Hong Kong-traded shares in its companies were suspended after it failed make payments on wealth products it had guaranteed.

Tightened controls on borrowing by highly leveraged real estate companies have been rattling markets after one of the biggest, Evergrande Group, failed to make payments on some of its debt.

The government has also been ramping up controls on wealth management.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 1.4% to 24,878.42. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9% to 3,493.88.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index shed 0.6% to 29, 611.57, while South Korea's Kospi declined 0.5% to 2,960.27. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 500 gained 0.4% to 7,456.90.

On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 4,680.06, extending its winning streak to a sixth day. The index has notched a succession of record-high closes, often on days when the market got off to a downbeat start.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower to 36,124.23, ending the blue-chip index’s five-day winning streak, while the Nasdaq added 0.8% to 15,940.31.

The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks slipped 0.1%, to 2,402.43.

Despite the mixed outcome, the market's latest milestones underscore how traders remain in a buying mood, encouraged by solid company earnings and by the Federal Reserve's decision, at least for now, to only slowly begin dialing back policies aimed at spurring U.S. economic growth when it was in the throes of the pandemic recession.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it...