The major regional equity benchmarks trade...>

STOCKS: The major regional equity benchmarks trade mixed.

- The Nikkei 225 was able to take advantage of a softer JPY and positive lead

from Wall St., while the ASX 200 traded either side of unchanged.

- Chinese stocks came under scrutiny, with the CSI 300 0.5% lower on the day and

the Shanghai Composite back below 3,000, while the ChiNext continued its

pullback from overbought territory. Reports late Wednesday noted that the CSRC

is stepping up scrutiny over leveraged trading, banning brokerages from

facilitating grey-market margin financing, while taking the opportunity to warn

against risks of a credit assisted bubble.

- Nikkei 225 +0.2%, Hang Seng unch., CSI 300 -0.5%, ASX 200 +0.1%.

- U.S. equity index futures struggled, with Boeing continuing to face scrutiny,

while the NYT reported that Facebook is facing a criminal probe into data deals

it entered.

- S&P 500 -4, DJIA -45, NASDAQ -15.