Major Asia indices decline more than 1% as data shows China’s May inflation jumped

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Friday morning trade as Chinese inflation data for May came in largely in line with expectations. Investors also looked ahead to the release of U.S. inflation data expected later stateside.

In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.57% while the Shenzhen component dipped 0.466%.

Chinese producer inflation in May rose in line with expectations, official data showed Friday. The Chinese producer price index for May jumped 6.4% as compared with a year earlier, according to figures by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That was in line with expectations in a Reuters poll.

Meanwhile, Chinese consumer inflation in May also saw a increase that was close to expectations. The consumer price index climbed 2.1% from a year ago, just below forecasts in a Reuters poll for a 2.2% increase.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 1.44% as shares of Tencent dropped 2.13%.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba fell nearly 3% in Friday morning trade after Jack Ma’s Ant Group and Chinese regulators squashed talk of reviving Ant’s public listing. U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba dropped 8.13% on Thursday following the announcements.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.27% as shares of SoftBank Group dropped 2.88%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.34%.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia dipped 0.76%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.23% lower.

The U.S. is also set to announce its May consumer price index report later Friday stateside.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 slipped 2.38% to 4,017.82. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 638.11 points, or 1.94%, to 32,272.79. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.75% to 11,754.23.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 103.244 after recently crossing the 103 level.

The Japanese yen traded at 134.12 per dollar, struggling to recover after weakening from levels below 132 against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7095 following a recent drop from above $0.714.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 1.15% to $121.65 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 1.09% to $120.19 per barrel.