Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, after all major US benchmarks fell on Wednesday.

ASX futures were down 0.8% or 65 points as of 8:00am on Thursday, suggesting a lower open.

US stocks ended the day lower on Wednesday, led by declines in real estate stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.09% to 38,461.51, the S&P 500 losing 0.95% to 5,160.64, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 0.84% to 16,170.36.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 1.2% to US$90.48 a barrel, while gold was down 0.8% at US$2,334.04.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds was down at 3.75% while the 10 Year yield was also down at 4.12%. US Treasury notes were up, with the 2 Year yield at 4.97% and the 10 Year yield at 4.54%.

The Australian dollar was 66.28 US cents up from its previous close. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies, was down at 99.64.

Asia

Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 0.7% at 3,027.34. The Shenzhen Composite Index slipped 1.6% to 9,297.96 and the ChiNext Price Index dropped 2.1% to 1,789.94.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.85% to close at 17,139.17.

Japanese stocks ended lower, with the Nikkei Stock Average down 0.5% to 39,581.81.

Indian shares ended higher. The benchmark Sensex Index ended up 0.5% at 75,038.15.

Europe

European shares ended Wednesday mostly flat, with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.15% to 506.59, the CAC 40 lost 0.05% to 8,045.38 while Germany's DAX gaining 0.11% to 18,097.30.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.33% to 7,961.21.

North America

US stocks ended the day lower on Wednesday, led by declines in real estate stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.09% to 38,461.51, the S&P 500 losing 0.95% to 5,160.64, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 0.84% to 16,170.36.