Customers at a fresh produce market in Shanghai, China, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened lower on Wednesday, despite dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell overnight that boosted Wall Street’s main stock indexes.
“Reducing policy restraints too late or not enough could weaken economic activity and employment too much,” Powell said, signaling caution against keeping interest rates too high.
In Asia, investors will be assessing inflation data from China and Japan as China releases consumer and producer price data for June.
China’s inflation rate is expected to accelerate slightly to 0.4% from 0.3% in May, while the producer price index is expected to fall modestly to 0.8% from a 1.4% decline in May.
Japan’s Corporate Goods Price Index (CGPI) rose 2.9% year-on-year in June, as expected, faster than the revised 2.6% in May. The CGPI measures price changes of goods traded within the corporate sector.
| Ticker | company | name | price | change | %change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .N225 | Nikkei Stock Average | Nikkei | 41,577.58 | -2.59 | -0.01% |
| .HSI | Hang Seng Index | HSI | 17,523.23 | united nations | united nations |
| .AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | ASX 200 | 7,786.00 | -43.70 | -0.56% |
| .SSEC | Shanghai | Shanghai | 2,956.67 | -2.71 | -0.09% |
| .KS11 | KOSPI Index | Korea Composite Stock Price Index | 2,864.27 | -3.11 | -0.11% |
| .FTFCNBCA | CNBC 100 Asia IDX | CNBC 100 | 10,161.95 | -16.48 | -0.16% |
Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell slightly from an all-time high hit on Tuesday, while the Tokyo Stock Exchange index was little changed.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.25% and the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.2%.On Wednesday, South Korean defense equipment maker Hanwha Aerospace said it had received a 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) order to supply K9 howitzers to Romania.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.28%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index futures were at 17,641, above the HSI’s last close of 17,523.23.
China’s largest insurer, Ping An Insurance, is considering issuing convertible bonds worth up to $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
In the US, Powell’s comments helped the S&P 500 index rise to a new record overnight on Tuesday, up 0.07% to 5,576.98, closing at its 36th highest level this year.
The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.14% to close at 18,429.29, also closing at a record high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13%.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
