SINGAPORE – Shares in Asia-Pacific look set to start lower on Wednesday as investors await the release of inflation data from China and the US
Nikkei futures in Chicago are at 26,110 while its counterpart in Osaka is at 26,060 – lower Nikkei 225’s last closed at 26,167.10.
Australian stocks also look poised to fall, with SPI futures at 7,014, vs S&P / ASX 200’s last close at 7,051.20.
China will release its inflation data on Wednesday, with the consumer price index and producer price index for April both due at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN. The data comes as the mainland continues to battle its worst Covid outbreak since the early stages of the pandemic in early 2020.
America April Consumer Price Index will also be released on Wednesdayand is expected to be slightly lower than March’s 8.5% This could signal that inflation has peaked.
Joseph Capurso, head of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note: “The US CPI for April was today, truly the highlight of the week.
“The US economists consensus expects key inflation to drop significantly from 1.2%/month in March to only 0.2%/month in April as retail gasoline prices have stabilized. However, core inflation is expected to pick up slightly from 0.3%/month in March to 0.4%/month in April,” Capurso said.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose about 0.25% to 4,001.05 while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.98% to 11,737.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 84.96 points – or 0.26% – to 32,160.74.
Currency
The US Dollar Indextracks the greenback against its basket of silver, at 103.92 – above the sub-103.8 seen earlier in the week.
The Japanese yen was trading at 130.34 per dollar, stronger than the above 130.5 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6937 as it struggled to recover from falling from above $0.70 earlier in the week.
