SHANGHAI, CHINA – AUGUST 14, 2025 – Tourists are visiting the Bund in Shanghai, China on August 14, 2025. <\/p>\n
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Friday as investors await U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the central bank’s annual economic symposium, which could offer clues<\/a> into the path of interest rates.<\/p>\n South Korea’s Kospi<\/a> jumped 0.66% and the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.41% higher.<\/p>\n Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225<\/a> slipped 0.18%, while the Topix rose 0.37%.<\/p>\n The country’s core inflation rate<\/a> cooled to 3.1% in July, coming down from 3.3% the month before. The figure \u2014 which strips out costs for fresh food \u2014 was higher than the 3% expected by economists polled by Reuters. Rice inflation eased to 90.7% in July, following two months of inflation surging past the 100% mark.<\/p>\n Australia’s benchmark S&P\/ASX 200 lost 0.3% after the index crossed the 9,000 mark for the first time Thursday.<\/p>\n Mainland China’s CSI 300 jumped 1.18%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.32%.<\/p>\n India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.52% at the open.<\/p>\n Overnight stateside, stocks fell broadly Thursday, with the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0sliding for the fifth day in a row.<\/p>\n The broad-market index shed 0.4% and closed at 6,370.17, while the\u00a0Nasdaq Composite<\/a>\u00a0slid 0.34% and settled at 21,100.31. The\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0fell 152.81 points, or 0.34%, ending at 44,785.50.<\/p>\n