Asian stocks mixed in quiet trade, Japan buoyed by lower yen

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Asian markets were mixed Thursday in quiet trade amid the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., with Japan's bourse buoyed by a lower yen.

The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes again set records Wednesday in pre-holiday trading.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "Volumes have been poor through U.S. equity markets and that's hardly a surprise given the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday but the juggernaut that is the bull market continues, albeit slowly," Chris Weston of IG said in a report.

Weston said the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to go ahead with an interest rate hike in December, especially after the release of a slew of strong economic data.