The benchmark Nikkei 225 index for Japan NIK, +0.22% rose 0.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia fell 0.7%, and the Kospi index in South Korea fell 0.8%. Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.60% down 0.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng HSI, -1.79% lost 1.8%.
Benchmark indices also fell in Malaysia FBMKLCI (+0.56%), Singapore STI (-0.28%), Taiwan Y9999 (-0.16%), and Indonesia JAKIDX (-1.33%).
According to reports, China’s consumer inflation rate increased last month as demand increased as a result of the removal of pandemic restrictions and travel and spending associated with the Lunar New Year, the nation’s biggest holiday.
After declining by 0.7% the month before, producer prices dropped by 0.8% in January. Inflation of consumer prices increased to 2.1% from 1.8% in December.
Updates on U.S. and British inflation will be released the following week, along with information on retail sales and industrial production in the United States.
In the wake of yet another disappointing batch of company profit reports and with increased expectations for interest rates, Wall Street share prices fell on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.73% dropped 0.7% to 33,699.88 and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.88% sank 0.9% to 4,081.50. To 11,789.58, the Nasdaq composite COMP, -1.02% fell 1%.
Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, claimed that there was “continuous indications that the economy is better than many expected it was going to be.”
Big U.S. firms have been posting rather underwhelming profits for the end of 2022 as a result of high prices and concerns about a deteriorating economy.
Although inflation has improved, Brent Schutte, chief investment officer of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, believes that recession worries are now the next source of volatility.
However, the labor market has generally remained robust. Although it was a little higher than the previous week, it stayed below the 200,000 mark for a fourth consecutive week.
In the oil market, New York Mercantile Exchange benchmark U.S. crude CLH23, -0.36% dropped 41 cents to $77.65 a barrel in electronic trading.
The worldwide benchmark for pricing, Brent oil BRNJ23, -0.20%, dropped 34 cents to $84.16 a barrel.