Asia-Pacific stocks fall as investors weigh recent trade developments

Asia-Pacific markets fell as investors weighed recent trade developments.

China markets fall at the open

Mainland China and Hong Kong stocks opened lower, as the Asia-Pacific region was mostly in the red.

Mainland China's CSI 300 was down 0.16%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index — which includes major Chinese companies — lost 0.53%.

The Hang Seng Tech Index, which tracks the largest technology companies listed in Hong Kong, fell 1.07%.

Tokyo inflation comes in lower than expected

Inflation in Japan's capital of Tokyo came in at 2.9% for July, softening from the 3.1% seen in June.

Core inflation, which strips out prices of volatile fresh food, also fell to 2.9% in July from 3.1% in the previous month. The latest reading was lower than the 3% expected by a Reuters poll of economists.

Tokyo's inflation figures are widely considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide trends.

Asia markets start Friday trading in the red

Asia markets started the trading day lower.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.24%, while the Topix lost 0.55%.

South Korea's Kospi was flat and the small-cap Kosdaq slipped 0.48%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.41%.

Asia markets set to open lower

Good morning from Singapore. Asia markets were set for a muted open Friday.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to start the trading day lower, with the futures contract in Chicago at 41,740 and its counterpart in Osaka at 41,640, against the index's last close at 41,826.34.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 25,505, pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's last close of 25,667.18.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was also on track to start the day lower with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,637, compared with its last close of 8,709.4.

S&P 500, Nasdaq close higher Thursday

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite ended Thursday's session with fresh record closes after scoring new all-time intraday highs earlier in the trading day.

The broad market index closed 0.07% higher to end at 6,363.35, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 0.18% to finish at 21,057.96.

However, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 316.38 points, or 0.7%, to settle at 44,693.91.