Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Thursday, after the United States reported a higher-than-expected inflation rate for June.
As of 9.29 hours local time in Thailand, the Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.69%, and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.31%.
In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.02%.
Meanwhile, mainland China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.22%, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong slipped 0.12%.
Inflation in the United States accelerated at a faster-than-anticipated rate in June 2022, reaching 9.1% year-over-year and beating the forecasted 8.8% increase.
This rate of inflation has not been seen since November 1981, and investors are therefore worried about how aggressively the Federal Reserve will have to respond to keep prices stable.
In the meantime, core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, declined to 5.9% on a yearly basis in June, but remained above the anticipated 5.7%.
In June, the core consumer price index increased by 0.7%, above expectations of a 0.5% increase.
According to preliminary GDP estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore’s economy expanded by 4.8% in the second quarter of 2022, compared to the same quarter the previous year. That is faster than the 4% expansion seen in the first quarter, but it falls short of the 5.2% expansion predicted by economists polled by Reuters.
