By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets fell Thursday ahead of an update on U.S. inflation that investors fear will bolster the Federal Reserve’s plans for more aggressive rate hikes.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul decreased. Oil prices fell.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended lower on Wednesday after producer price inflation eased, but was still near a multi-decade high.
The most watched consumer price index will be released later on Thursday.
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“An aggressive reaction to the data could add further pressure to equities,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.
The Fed and other central banks in Europe and Asia have raised rates by unusually large margins to cool inflation from multi-decade highs, but traders fear it could tip the global economy into recession.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.1% to 3,021.76 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 sank 0.5% to 26,275.00. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2% to 16,510.25.
Seoul’s Kospi fell 1.4% to 2,171.41 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained less than 0.1% to 6,651.00.
India’s Sensex opened 0.6% lower at 57,295.57. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets declined.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.3% to 3,577.03 on Wednesday for its sixth daily decline after a report showed producer price inflation running too high.
Prices rose 8.5% in September, down from the March high of 11.7%. But prices rose 0.4% compared to August after two months of declines.
Thursday’s consumer inflation and Friday’s retail sales data could give a clearer picture of where prices are higher and how consumers are reacting.
The S&P 500 is down 25% so far this year and is near a two-year low.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 29,210.85. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.1% to 10,417.10. Both are on track for a weekly loss.
The minutes of the latest Fed meeting, released on Wednesday, underscored the central bank’s commitment to reining in “unacceptably high” inflation.
Also on Wednesday, the British pound weakened against the US dollar after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey confirmed that the British central bank will not extend an emergency debt purchase plan to stabilize markets beyond Friday. financial.
The dollar’s exchange rate has been rising against other currencies due to Fed rate hikes and recession fears.
The yen fell further to 146.85 per dollar after hitting a 24-year low of 145.85 on Wednesday.
Generated expectations that Japan’s central bank could intervene again to prop up the yen exchange rate after an earlier intervention in September.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude gained 5 cents at $87.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the base price for international oil trading, rose 18 cents to $92.63 a barrel in London.
The euro fell to 96.02 cents from 97.06 cents.
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