Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Friday as investors look to U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the central bank’s annual economic symposium, which could offer clues into the path of interest rates.
South Korea’s jumped 1.22% and the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.94% higher.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225
slipped 0.1% at the open, while the Topix rose 0.44%.
The country’s core inflation rate cooled to 3.1% in July, coming down from 3.3% the month before. The figure — which strips out costs for fresh food — 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.
