Asia-Pacific markets largely fell Friday after producer prices in the U.S. grew at a faster than expected 0.6% in February.
Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI climbed 0.3% in February. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected a 0.3% gain for headline PPI and a 0.2% increase for the core reading.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plunged 1.5%, dragged by healthcare and tech stocks, while mainland China’s CSI 300 reversed losses to close 0.22% higher at 3,569.99. The Hang Seng is up 1.7% for the week.
Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China kept its one-year medium term lending facility rate unchanged at 2.5%.
Japan’s largest trade union, Rengo, said that workers at the country’s biggest firms are set for the sharpest wage spike in more than three decades.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.26% lower at 38,707.64, while the Topix bucked the wider sell-off and edged 0.3% higher ending at 2,670.8.
This comes as the country’s finance minister said that the country was “no longer in deflation,” a distinct break from previous positions.
South Korea’s Kospi closed 1.91% lower at 2,666.84, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.8% to 880.46.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.56%, closing at 7,670.3 to hit its lowest level in about two weeks.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes lost ground as the hot inflation report sent bond yields higher, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury adding about 10 basis points to 4.29%.
This put pressure on equities, with the 30-stock Dow down 0.35%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.29%.
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