Stocks fall after Wall Street plunges on US CPI

A pedestrian walks past an electronic quotation board showing stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on June 16, 2020.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
Shares in the Asia-Pacific fell sharply on Wednesday after Wall Street indices fell sharply following a higher-than-expected US consumer price index report for August.
Japan̵[ads1]7;s Nikkei 225 fell 2.28%, and the Topix index fell 1.63%. The Japanese yen traded at 144.43 per dollar, hovering around its weakest levels since September 1998.
Kospi in South Korea lost 1.66% and Kosdaq fell 2%. The South Korean won passed the 1,390 mark against the dollar and last traded at 1,392.24 against the dollar, around the weakest levels since March 2009.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.44%, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.89% and the Shenzhen Composite fell 1.3%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.79%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.1%.
The US 2-year Treasury yield also hit 3.79%, its highest level since 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,276.37 points, or 3.94%, to close at 31,104.97. The S&P 500 fell 4.32% to 3,932.69, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.16% to end the session at 11,633.57.
“Perhaps the most worrying thing in all this is that the strength in core inflation is largely service sector-led categories,” Ray Attrill, National Australia Bank’s head of foreign exchange strategy, said in a note, adding that the sector is primarily wage inflation. – driven.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Jesse Pound and Carmen Reinicke contributed to this report.