Asian shares mostly lower on strong China price data

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares fell Friday in most Asian markets after China reported a stronger than expected rise in prices that could prompt authorities to act to cool inflation.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index rebounded after falling the day before. Shares declined in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul.

On Thursday, stocks closed moderately higher on Wall Street, lifted by gains in large technology companies that benefit from lower bond yields. But an increase in jobless claims dented some of the buying enthusiasm.

China reported that consumer prices rose in March due largely to a jump in fuel prices, while producer prices climbed at the fastest pace in more than four years.

The consumer price index rose 0.4% in March compared with minus 0.2% in February, as fuel prices jumped nearly 12% from a year earlier. Prices paid by manufacturers rose 4.4% from a year earlier.

Inflation reflects rising demand as China's economy leads the world recovery from the pandemic. Worries that stronger growth might spur inflation that regulators in many major economies would then move to cool, partly by raising interest rates, have been overhanging the markets for the past several months.

China's central bank already has ordered lenders to slow the pace of credit growth to counter rising risks.

Added to that, a fresh round of U.S. sanctions, this time against seven Chinese supercomputer makers, has revived concern over trade friction between the two largest economies, said Jeffrey Halley of Oanda.

“Asian markets are once again adopting a more cautious posture today. Geopolitics is never far from the surface, even if it is often lost in the global recovery noise," Halley said in a report.

The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9% to 3,451.81 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 1.2%...