A line of trucks parked outside a shipping terminal in Yokohama, Japan, on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell Friday, mirroring moves on Wall Street that was weighed down by a hotter-than-expected producer price inflation reading.
The producer price index, which measures wholesale inflation, climbed 0.4% for November, higher than the Dow Jones estimate of 0.2%. On an annual basis, PPI advanced 3%, its biggest rise since the 12 months ended February 2023.
In Asia, investors weighed China’s stimulus pledges after Beijing on Thursday affirmed its recent policy shifts and stressed on plans to boost growth following a high-profile meeting.
Investors also assessed the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey, which showed a higher-than-expected optimism among large Japanese manufacturers.
The Tankan index for large manufacturing firms climbed to 14 in the quarter ended December, up from 13 in the September quarter and beating the 12 expected from economists polled by Reuters.
The index tracks business sentiment in the country among large companies and contributes to the BOJ’s considerations when forming monetary policy. A higher figure means that optimists outnumber pessimists, and vice versa.
India will also release its wholesale inflation figures for November later in the day. Economists polled by Reuters expect India’s wholesale inflation rate to come down to 2.2% from October’s 2.36%. The country’s consumer inflation dropped from a 14-month high, according to data released Thursday.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 20,219, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 20,397.05.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.71%, while the broad-based Topix saw a larger loss of 0.85%.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.22% down, but the small-cap Kosdaq was marginally above the flatline.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day down 0.66%.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes slid, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.53% to mark its sixth straight losing day.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated from the 20,000 mark and shed 0.66%, while the broad market S&P 500 shed 0.54% .
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.
