Chinese markets slip as consumer prices rise to 15-month high

Mainland Chinese shares slipped on the day, with the Shanghai compositedeclining 0.56% to close at 2,909.38 and the Shenzhen component shedding 0.92% to end its trading day at 8,954.72. The Shenzhen composite also fell 0.639% to close at 1,528.40.

Official Chinese inflation data showed the producer price index in the country rising 0.6% year-on-year in May, meeting expectations of analysts in a Reuters poll. The consumer price index also rose 2.7% year-on-year in the same period, its fastest pace since Feb 2018 and in line with analyst expectations.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped more than 1.7%, as of its final hour of trade, as protests continued in the city on Wednesday over the contentious China extradition law. Lawmakers in Hong Kong were originally set to discuss the proposal Wednesday morning, but the legislature announced in a statement on its website that the meeting would be “changed to a later time,” without offering a reason.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.35% to close at 21,129.72, with shares of conglomerate and index heavyweight Softbank Group dropping 2.4%.The Topix index also fell 0.45% to finish its trading day at 1,554.22.

Over in South Korea, the Kospi slipped 0.14% to close at 2,108.75, while Australia’s ASX 200 shed earlier gains to end its trading day Down Under just below the flatline at 6,543.70.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow ended the trading day stateside down 14.17 points at 26,048.51, snapping a six-day winning streak. The S&P 500 declined less than 0.1% to close at 2,885.72 while the Nasdaq Composite finished just below breakeven at 7,822.57.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet that the dollar is at a “big disadvantage ” against other major currencies such as the euro.

“The Euro and other currencies are devalued against the dollar, putting the U.S. at a big disadvantage,” Trump tweeted, adding the U.S. Federal Reservedoesn’t have “a clue.” The dollar fell slightly against the euro following Trump’s tweets.

Trump’s comments come amid increasing investor expectations that the Fed could cut interest rates in the coming months, though one analyst told CNBC the U.S. central bank is likely to “continue to sit on the fence.”

“I think all this talk about the Fed being ready to cut is actually very, very counterproductive and it’ll be a race to the bottom. I don’t think things are that dire at all. I think there’s still quite a lot of ammunition in the United States,” David Marsh, chairman and co-founder at OMFIF. “The economy hasn’t slowed by that much.”

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.637 after trading between 96.6 and 96.9 yesterday.

The Japanese yen traded at 108.33 against the dollar after scaling levels above 108.6 in the previous session, while the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6951 following an earlier high of $0.6963.

Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract slipping 1.64% to $61.27 per barrel and U.S. crude futures falling 1.73% to $52.35 per barrel.

— Reuters, along with CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Kelly Olsen, contributed to this report.