Asia-Pacific markets mixed as China’s May inflation rises for the 4th straight month

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Wednesday as investors assessed inflation data from around Asia.

China’s May inflation rate came in at 0.3%, missing expectations of 0.4% by economists polled by Reuters. The figure was unchanged from April.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index opened 0.76% lower after the CPI announcement, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was down marginally.

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.

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.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.79%, while the broad based Topix saw a larger loss of 0.85%.

Japan’s corporate goods inflation rate accelerated to 2.4% in May, beating expectations and marking its fastest rate of increase since August.

However, South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.45%, and the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.56% higher.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.69%, extending losses from Tuesday.

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.