Asia-Pacific stocks mixed after data shows U.S. consumer inflation surged in October

Key Points

• Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed in Thursday trade.
• Employment in Australia fell unexpectedly by 46,300 in October, seasonally adjusted estimates from the country’s Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday. That was far off expectations by analysts for a 50,000 rise, according to Reuters.
• Data released overnight showed the U.S. consumer price index in October seeing its biggest surge in more than 30 years.

SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed in Thursday trade after data released overnight showed US consumer inflation spiked in October.

Australian stocks led losses among the region’s major markets as the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.18%.

Employment in Australia fell unexpectedly by 46,300 in October, seasonally adjusted estimates from the country’s Bureau of Statistics showed. That was far off analyst expectations for a 50,000 rise, according to Reuters. Unemployment also rose climbed to 5.2% higher than the 4.8% expected in a Reuters poll.

Mainland Chinese stocks were higher, with the Shanghai composite up 0.14% while the Shenzhen component gained 0.323%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.34%.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan recovered from earlier losses, rising 0.58% while the Topix index gained 0.3%. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.69%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.7% lower.

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U.S. consumer inflation surge

Data released overnight showed the U.S. consumer price index in October seeing its biggest surge in more than 30 years.

Major indexes on Wall Street fell following the inflation data release, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 240.04 points to 36,079.94 while the S&P 500 shed 0.82% to 4,646.71. The Nasdaq Composite lagged as it dropped 1.66% to around 15,622.71.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields climbed following the consumer price data release. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note last stood at 1.5699%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 94.913 after seeing levels below 94 earlier.

The Japanese yen traded at 114.06 per dollar, weaker than levels below 113 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7327, still off levels above $0.74 seen earlier this week.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.51% to $83.06 per barrel. US crude futures gained 0.5% to $81.75 per barrel.

Source : CNBC