SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific fell on Wednesday after Wall Street’s negative performance on Tuesday. Investors will also be looking forward to Japan’s consumer confidence data release.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined about 1% in early trade, while the Hang Seng Tech index dropped 1.44%.
In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 1.55%, while the Kosdaq fell 1.68%.
South Korea’s consumer sentiment index fell, standing at 96.4 for June 2022, down 6.2 points from May’s print, according to Bank of Korea’s survey.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan was down 0.96%, and the Topix slipped 0.63%. Retail sales in Japan rose 3.6% in May compared to a year ago, a third consecutive month of growth, government data showed.
The Shanghai Composite slipped fractionally, and the Shenzhen Component was also slightly lower.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 1.2% lower. Retail sales in Australia rose 0.9% in May compared to April, the same increase in April from March.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares declined around 1%.
U.S. stocks gave up early gains to decline overnight following disappointing economic data. The consumer confidence index fell to 98.7 in June from 103.2 in May, according to The Conference Board.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 491.27 points, or 1.56%, to 30,946.99. The S&P 500 slipped 2.01% to 3,821.55, and the Nasdaq Composite was the laggard, declined 3% to 11,181.54.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 104.417, bouncing back from below 104 earlier this week.
The Japanese yen weakened past the 136 level against the dollar again, after strengthening and holding steady in the past few sessions. It last changed hands at 136.02. The Australian dollar was at $0.6905.
Oil futures were little changed in Asia’s morning trade. U.S. crude futures were fractionally higher at $111.80 per barrel, while Brent crude lost 0.11% to $117.85 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
