Citizens are shopping at a supermarket in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu province, on March 9, 2024.
Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower on Wednesday, ahead of inflation data from both China and India.
Traders in Asia will also look toward the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday stateside, which will come hours after the country’s May inflation report.
China’s May inflation rate is expected to increase by 0.4%, slightly higher than the 0.3% seen in April.
Separately, India’s inflation rate is also forecast to climb marginally to 4.89%, according to a Reuters poll of economists, slightly higher than April’s 4.83% increase.
Futures for Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 stood at 7,727, slightly lower than its last close of 7,755.4.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a weaker open for the market, with futures contract in Chicago at 38,910 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,910 compared to the previous close of 39,134.79.
Japan is expected to see its corporate goods inflation index climb 2%, its fastest pace of increase since September 2023.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 18,018, lower than the HSI’s last close of 18,176.34. At this level, the index would hit its lowest level since April 30.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to fresh closing highs, led by Apple as the iPhone maker surged to a record high.
The broad market index gained 0.27%, closing at 5,375.32, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.88% to end at 17,343.55. On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.31%,
On Tuesday, investors appeared to be taking profits in artificial intelligence star Nvidia and rotating into emerging AI play Apple, which just unveiled new features that could spark a wave of iPhone upgrades, analysts said.
The iPhone maker hit a new record high during the session — its first since last December — jumping nearly 7.3%. Nvidia lost 0.7%.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.