SYDNEY- Asian share markets were mostly weaker while the US dollar higher on Tuesday as investors awaited inflation readings from China and the United States to deliver an updated outlook on the health of the global economy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.9 percent on Tuesday, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. The index is down 2.8 percent so far this month.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 4.0885 percent compared with its US close of 4.078 percent on Monday. The two-year yield which rises with traders’ expectations of higher Federal Reserve fund rates, touched 4.7682 percent compared with a US close of 4.758 percent.
Australian shares were up 0.39 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.72 percent .
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was off 1.73 percent while China’s blue chip CSI300 Index lost 0.54 percent in early trade.
The mixed start in Asia follows a stronger night in US markets.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.16 percent , the S&P 500 gained 0.90 percent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.61 percent.
Global investors are keenly awaiting inflation readings from China on Wednesday and the US on Thursday, expecting them to show stark differences in price movement in the world’s two biggest economies.
US inflation likely accelerated slightly in July to an annual 3.3 percent , while the core rate was likely unchanged at 4.8 percent , according to a Reuters poll of economists. ANZ predicts China’s July consumer price index to come in at minus 0.4 percent year on year.
“The Fed is wary of upside risks to elevated inflation given demand for labor remains excessive, and most policy makers think the policy rate will need to be kept restrictive,” ANZ economists wrote on Tuesday.
“Weak inflation in China should be a global disinflationary force in goods markets going forward.”
Chinese trade data for July to be published later on Tuesday is likely to show a 12.5 percent fall in exports from a year earlier, showed the median forecast of 28 economists in a Reuters poll.
