Asia-Pacific markets set for cautious start after U.S. stocks decline overnight

  • Asia-Pacific stocks fell in early Tuesday trade, following a sell-off in tech stocks that weighed down major U.S. indexes overnight.
  • U.S. markets fell overnight as investors exited Big Tech stocks including Microsoft and Apple. The Nasdaq Composite suffered the largest loss, falling by 2.5%.
  • Asian economic data due for release Tuesday include China's inflation for April as well as first-quarter GDP in Malaysia and the Philippines.

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SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks fell in early Tuesday trade, following a sell-off in tech stocks that weighed down major U.S. indexes overnight.

Japan's Nikkei 225 declined around 0.97% while the Topix moved 0.6% lower. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.57%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 inched down 0.43%.

U.S. markets fell overnight as investors exited Big Tech stocks including Microsoft and Apple. The Nasdaq Composite suffered the largest loss, falling by 2.5%.

China's inflation data for April will be on investors' watchlist. Analysts polled by Reuters expect Chinese consumer prices rose 1% last month from a year ago, accelerating from 0.4% in March.

China is also expected to release results of its once-in-a-decade population census.

Elsewhere in the region, Southeast Asian countries Malaysia and the Philippines are scheduled to report first-quarter gross domestic product data.

Analysts in a Reuters poll expect Malaysia's economy to shrink 2% in in the January-to-March quarter compared with a year ago and the Philippine economy to contract 3% in the same period.

Currencies and oil

In the foreign exchange market, the U.S. dollar was at 90.238 against a basket of its peers in early Asia trade.

The Japanese yen changed hands at 108.87 per dollar, while the Australian dollar strengthened around 0.11% against the greenback to $0.7838.

In oil markets, U.S. crude futures dipped 0.06% to $64.88 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent was down 0.1% to $68.25 per barrel.

CNBC's Thomas Franck contributed to this report.

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