Customers shop at a supermarket in Tokyo on February 27, 2024.
Nogi Kazuhiro | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday as investors awaited comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a meeting of global central bank governors in Jackson Hole.
Chairman Powell has previously outlined broad policy ideas at Jackson Hole, offering hints about the direction of U.S. policy.
In Asia, Japanese data showed headline inflation was unchanged at 2.8% in July from the previous month.
Core inflation, excluding fresh food prices, was 2.7 percent, in line with forecasts by economists surveyed by Reuters and up from 2.6 percent in June.
But the so-called “core-core” inflation rate tracked by the Bank of Japan, which excludes fresh food and energy prices, fell to 1.9% in July from 2.2% in June.
This is the lowest reading for “core core” inflation since September 2022.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4% to 38,364.27, while the Tokyo Stock Price Index rose 0.5% to close at 2,684.72. Both indexes hit their highest since Aug. 1, the day before Asian markets crashed.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told parliament on Friday that the central bank would “continue to closely monitor” market developments, adding that markets remained volatile, according to Reuters.
South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.22% to end at 2,701.69, while the small-cap KOSDAQ edged down slightly to 773.26. Small-cap indexes fell for a third straight day.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell just below flat to 8,023.9, ending a 10-day winning streak.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.14% at the close, while mainland China's CSI 300 reversed losses to close up 0.42% at 3,327.19. The CSI had slumped to a six-month low before rebounding.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group said in a statement early on Friday that it would convert its secondary listing in Hong Kong into a primary listing and will have a dual listing in both Hong Kong and New York.
“The company's voluntary conversion to a dual primary listing does not involve any new share issuance or capital raising,” it added.
Overnight in the US, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index recorded the biggest drop among the three major indexes, falling 1.67% due to declines in tech stocks.
The S&P 500 lost 0.89%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.43%.
—CNBC's Alex Harring and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
