UPDATE:
Asian markets remain mostly unchanged from yesterday's close following China's lower-than-expected GDP reading.
Japan's Nikkei is off four points, or less than 0.1 percent.
China's Shanghai Stock Exchange is flat.
Meanwhile, Australia's S&P ASX and South Korea's KOSPI are up 0.6 percent.
ORIGINAL:
Asian markets are barely moved ahead of the highly anticipated Chinese trade data about to hit.
Already the Pacific was hit with an unexpectedly poor reading of the Singapore economy, which contracted by 1.1 percent sequentially in the second quarter of 2012.
Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast the island nation would see moderate expansion of 0.6 percent.
Exports declined at a faster clip than expected and manufacturing fell six percent.
The news did little to impact Singapore's key index, the Straits Times Index, which is up six points, or 0.2 percent.
Japan's Nikkei is slightly higher as well, up five points, or less than 0.1 percent.
In China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange is relatively unchanged from the open.
