Asia markets dip, led by tech selloff as investors await U.S. inflation data

Asia markets mostly lower on Wednesday, as tech stocks led the retreat following a modest pullback in Wall Street’s Nasdaq ahead of key ￰0￱ data later this week and the FOMC meeting next ￰1￱ prices hovered around $4,120 per ounce on Wednesday, stabilizing after a sharp drop of over 5% in the previous session, the steepest since ￰2￱ ( NKY:IND ) rose 0.10% to below 48,900 on Wednesday, pulling back from record ￰3￱ Japanese yen traded around 151.7 per dollar on Wednesday, after a sharp fall in the previous session following the election of Sanae Takaichi as prime ￰4￱ reported a trade deficit of JPY 234.6 billion in September 2025, significantly missing market expectations, which had forecasted a JPY 22 billion surplus, with exports rising 4.2% year-on-year—the first increase since April.

Concurrently, imports climbed 3.3% to an eight-month high of JPY 9,648.3 billion, driven by Tokyo’s measures to stimulate consumption. Japan’s new economics minister, Minoru Kiuchi, vowed to prop up the economy amid higher ￰5￱ and domestic inflation. “It is undeniable that the recovery in personal consumption still lacks strength amid continued inflation,” he said ￰6￱ ( SHCOMP ) fell 0.07% to around 3,910 while the Shenzhen Component fell 0.2% to 13,050 on Wednesday, snapping a two-day winning streak as persistent trade uncertainty weighed on sentiment, and the offshore yuan held steady around 7.12 per dollar on Wednesday, as markets remained cautious amid developments in US-China trade negotiations.

China’s urban youth unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds, excluding students, declined to 17.7% in September 2025, down from August’s 18.9%, which was the highest level since December 2023, and slightly above 17.6% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party’s Fourth Plenum, which runs through Thursday, is set to chart the country’s next five-year economic development ￰7￱ Kong ( HSI ) fell 1.09% to 25,922 in early trade on Wednesday, reversing gains from the prior session amid broad-based ￰8￱ ( SENSEX ) market ￰9￱ and the ￰10￱ close to finalizing a long-stalled trade deal that would cut ￰11￱ on Indian imports from 50% to 15–16%, India's Mint reported.

India's infrastructure output grew by 3% yoy in September 2025, the slowest pace in three months, sharply down from a revised 15-month high of 6.5% in ￰12￱ ( AS51 ) fell 0.71% to around 9,000 in Wednesday morning trade, pulling back from a record close in the previous session, with gold stocks and heavyweight miners leading the market ￰13￱ Australian dollar remained under pressure below $0.650, holding near two-month lows amid growing bets of a near-term rate cut by the Reserve Bank of ￰14￱ the ￰15￱ Tuesday, all three major indexes ended higher for a third straight session as a strong start to earnings outweighed lingering US China trade ￰16￱ now await Tesla’s earnings on Wednesday for further cues on the sector, and look ahead to Friday’s CPI report amid a data blackout from the ongoing US government ￰17￱ futures were steady on Wednesday as traders evaluated the latest round of corporate results: Dow +0.18% ; S&P 500 +0.19% ; Nasdaq +0.10% .

Currencies: ( JPY:USD ), ( CNY:USD ), ( AUD:USD ), ( INR:USD ), ( HKD:USD ), ( NZD:USD ). More on Asia: Japan misses surplus forecast with JPY 234.6B trade deficit; exports rise 4.2%, imports hit 8-month high China's Q3 GDP 4.8% Y/Y, hits slowest pace since 2024, but beats quarterly expectations PBoC holds key lending rates steady for fifth straight month China's industrial output surges 6.5%, consumer spending slows to 1-year low; jobless rate falls to 5.2% in September Australia jobless rate rises to 4.5% in Sept; employment growth misses estimates