Customers at a fresh food market in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets started Wednesday lower, even as key Wall Street benchmarks rose following dovish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell overnight.
Powell signaled caution over leaving interest rates at too high a level, saying that “reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment.”
Over in Asia, investors will assess inflation data from China and Japan, with China releasing its consumer and producer prices data for June.
Inflation in China is expected to accelerate slightly to 0.4%, up from 0.3% in May, while its PPI is forecast to post a softer fall of 0.8% from May’s 1.4% decline.
Japan’s corporate goods price index rose to 2.9% in June from a year earlier, in line with expectations and climbing at a faster pace compared to a revised 2.6% in May. The CGPI measures the price changes of goods traded within the corporate sector.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 retreated from Tuesday’s all-time high, slipping marginally, while the broad-based Topix was trading close to the flatline.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.25% down, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.2% lower. On Wednesday, South Korean defense manufacturer Hanwha Aerospace announced a 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) order from Romania to supply K9 howitzers to the country.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.28%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,641, higher than the HSI’s last close of 17,523.23.
China’s largest insurer, Ping An Insurance, is considering issuing convertible bond worth up to $5 billion, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 climbed to a fresh record Tuesday after Powell’s comments, gaining 0.07% to 5,576.98 and marking its 36th record close of the year.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.14% to close at 18,429.29, also ending the day at a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked down 0.13%.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.