Asia-Pacific markets mixed as investors assess inflation and central bank policy outlook

Key Points

• Asia-Pacific markets were mixed in Tuesday trading.
• Shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group rose about 0.7% despite the Financial Times reporting that the firm’s sale of chip business Arm to Nvidia had collapsed.
• Global markets have continued to see a wave of volatility as investors continue to assess the outlook for factors such as central bank policy normalization, with expectations that fast-rising wages in the U.S. could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even higher this year.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Tuesday trade, as investors in the region continue to assess the inflation and central bank policy outlook.

Mainland Chinese stocks slipped in early trade, with the Shanghai composite fractionally lower while the Shenzhen component dipped 0.64%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.52%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.46% while the Topix index climbed 0.55%. Shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group rose about 0.7% as the Financial Times reported that the firm’s sale of chip business Arm to Nvidia had collapsed.

Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.69%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.1%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.18% higher.

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Global markets have continued to see a wave of volatility as investors continue to assess the outlook for factors such as central bank policy normalization, with expectations that fast-rising wages in the U.S. could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even higher this year.

“For now at least, inflation and related central bank thinking remains by far the bigger influence on market sentiment,” Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank, wrote in a Tuesday note.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite led losses overnight among the major indexes stateside, falling 0.58% to 14,015.67.

The S&P 500 also declined 0.37% to 4,483.87 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed just 1.39 points to 35,091.13.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.424 — off levels around 95.2 seen late last week.

The Japanese yen traded at 115.28 per dollar following its strengthening yesterday from levels above 115.2 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7128 after yesterday’s climb from below $0.708.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.45% to $92.27 per barrel. U.S. crude futures dipped 0.33% to $91.02 per barrel.

Source : CNBC