Beautiful and colorful aerial view of Mumbai skyline during twilight seen from Currey Road, on February 16, 2022 in Mumbai, India.
Pratik Chorge | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday after Wall Street’s tech-fueled rally dissipated, with investors focused on Japan’s spring wage negotiations and India’s wholesale inflation data.
Japan’s wage negotiations wrapped up on Wednesday, with the first overall estimate due out on Friday. Reports from local outlets have indicated that large firms offered “major” wage hikes.
Strong wage increases could clear the way for the Bank of Japan to start unwinding its ultra easy monetary policy, with the central bank due to meet next Monday and Tuesday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 reversed losses to rise 0.14% as markets price in the possibility of the BOJ tightening policy. The broad-based Topix saw a larger gain of 0.3%
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.81%, while the Kosdaq index slipped 0.43%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.92% after climbing earlier in the day, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was flat.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended the day 0.2% lower, despite a rally by miners on the back of gold’s continued strength.
Overnight in the U.S., major indexes ended mixed with tech giants Nvidia falling 1.1%, Meta slipping 0.8% and Apple dropping 1.2%, after February U.S. inflation data came in nearly in line with expectations.
“I think it was a relief to see the [headline] CPI number yesterday, but people are still cautious about the underlying data,” said Ayako Yoshioka, senior portfolio manager at Wealth Enhancement Group. “In the short-term, the macro narrative around the Federal Reserve is going to be the front and center issue.”
The S&P500 closed 0.19% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.54%. In contrast, The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
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