Japan, China, India PMI; Powell comments

Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Wednesday, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell noted there was progress on reining in inflation, while investors also assessed a slew of data from the region.

The au Jibun Bank reported that Japan’s composite purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.7 in June, down sharply from 52.6 in the previous month. This signals a decrease in Japanese private sector activity for the first time in seven months.

The bank noted that a slight reduction in services activity, the first decline since August 2022, outweighed a marginal increase in manufacturing output for the month.

Separately, the Caixin services purchasing managers’ index showed that China’s services sector expanded for the 18th consecutive month, though it was at its slowest pace since October 2023. The PMI was 51.2 in June, down from 54.0 a month prior.

Traders in Asia will also assess June business activity data from India, set for release later in the day.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.7% extending its run above the 40,000 mark, while the broad-based Topix was flat.

South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.3%, while the Kosdaq Index rose 0.21%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.2%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.70% in early trade. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 0.4.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced Tuesday that it had repurchased a total of 613 million of its ordinary shares for a total of $5.8 billion in the quarter ending June. The company’s stock was up 1.7% on Wednesday.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.41%, the S&P 500 gained 0.62%, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.84%. Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hit record high closes.

Tesla shares helped lift the S&P 500 after Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company beat expected deliveries for the second quarter.

—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sarah Min contributed to this report.