South Korea CPI, Nasdaq hits new information

Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Tuesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that saw the Nasdaq Composite reach a new record on the back of tech stocks.

The index, led by gains in Microsoft, Apple and chipmaker Nvidia, advanced 0.83% to end at 17,879.3.

Traders in Asia assessed South Korea’s inflation rate which came in at 2.4% for June, missing expectations of economists polled by Reuters who had predicted it at 2.7%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.38%, while the broad-based Topix was up 0.78%. The Japanese yen weakened to as much as 161.67 against the dollar, staying at 38-year lows.

The Bank of Japan is likely to cut bond purchases by about $100 billion in the first year under a quantitative tightening plan to be released this month, according to a Reuters survey.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries climbed 4.87% to a fresh all-time high, on pace to continue a six-day winning streak.

South Korea’s Kospi was 0.84% lower and the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.77% lower after the inflation data was released.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.37%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was marginally lower.

Longfor Group climbed 5.41% after the company repurchased $219.6 million of notes that carried an interest rate of 3.85%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6% as the Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes from its June monetary policy meeting, in which board members discussed raising interest rates but eventually decided to hold them steady at 4.35%.

Members said it was still possible to achieve the inflation target within a reasonable time frame without moving from full employment, while acknowledging this “narrow path” was becoming narrower.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 recorded gains, rising 0.13% and 0.27% respectively.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.