Asia-Pacific markets fell on Thursday after a soft inflation report in the U.S. helped two of the three benchmarks on Wall Street reverse course from two days of losses.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index docked 29.06 points, or 0.1%, to 36,790.03.
Shares of Seven & i Holdings gained as much as 3.60%, following Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard’s press conference on buying the 7-Eleven operator.
Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle-K convenience store chain, has been pursuing Seven & i for months and put in a $47 billion bid for the Japanese retail giant. This would be Japan’s largest-ever foreign buyout if the deal is completed. However, Couche-Tard has so far mostly received frosty reception from Seven & i.
Couche-Tard founder and Executive Chairman Alain Bouchard said the company has had “many discussions” with Seven & i’s new CEO Stephen Dacus, “but it has always stopped at the regulatory ask, the thing that we cannot overcome.”
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 137.66 points, or 0.6%, to 23,462.65.
The consumer price index — a broad-based measure of costs across the U.S. economy — increased 0.2% month-on-month in February, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.8%.
In other markets
The CSI 300 in mainland China slipped 15.65 points, or 0.4% to 3,911.58.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index swooned 316.68 points, or 1.4%, to 21,961.98.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index moved higher 4.45 points, or 0.1%, to 3,837.52
In Korea, the Kospi stepped back 1.18 points, or 0.1%, to 2,573.64
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 faded 40.5 points, or 0.3%, to 12,209.05.
In Australia, the ASX 200 dropped 37.17 points, or 0.5%, to 7,749.07
