Asian stock markets mixed as China data disappoints

Youkyung Lee, The Associated Press</span>
Published Wednesday, May 10, 2017 7:32AM EDT

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of -- Asian stocks markets were mixed on Wednesday as weaker than expected Chinese inflation data pulled the Shanghai benchmark lower.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.3 per cent to 19,900.09 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.6 per cent to 25,045.28. The Shanghai Composite index gave up early gains to sink 0.9 per cent to 3,052.79. South Korea's Kospi fell 1.0 per cent to 2,270.12. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.6 per cent to 5,875.40.

MOON RISES: Moon Jae-in, South Korea's newly elected liberal president, took office Wednesday. Moon said he would visit North Korea under the right conditions. Domestically, he promised social and economic reforms including creating jobs, curbing excessive power of founding families who control big businesses and ending corruptions between big businesses and politicians. But South Korea's benchmark Kospi fell for the first time in four sessions, retreating from a record high set on the eve of Tuesday's election.

CHINA INFLATION: Consumer prices rose in April, with inflation at 1.2 per cent, but factory-gate producer costs fell slightly from the month before, for the first time in almost a year. The trends suggest weakness underlying a rebound in growth that regulators are already trying to cool.

ANALYST'S VIEW: "Further ahead, producer price inflation should continue to wane as policy tightening weighs on economic activity. Consumer price inflation, meanwhile, may inch up further but should remain below 2.0%. The upshot is that hopes for a sustained reflation in China are fading," Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economic said in a commentary.

WALL STREET: The Nasdaq composite index ticked higher to another record Tuesday, its third straight day of setting an all-time high, but other indexes closed lower. The Nasdaq rose 0.3 per cent to 6,120.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.1 per cent to 2,396.92. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.2 per cent to 20,975.78.

OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude added 36 cents to $46.24 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 55 cents to settle at $45.88 per barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 30 cents to $49.03. It fell 61 cents to close at $48.73 per barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The euro strengthened to $1.0892 from $1.0876 while the dollar rose to 114.11 Japanese yen from 113.99 yen.

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