Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday with Tokyo down despite strong core manufacturing data, and Shanghai up after consumer prices rose a tad higher than expected.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.39%, while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.15%. The Nikkei 225 dropped 1.08%.
In China,CPI rose 1.5% year-on-year, a tick higher than the 1.4% seen and PPI fell 5.9%, matching expectations.
The higher consumer inflation will no doubt limit the room for the People's Bank of China to further cut interest rates. The PBOC last cut the benchmark one-year deposit rate to 1.5% at the end of October.
In Australia, the Westpac consumer sentiment dipped 0.8% for December, down from 3.9% in the previous month. Also in Australia home loans for October fell 0.5%, less than expected and housing finance slumped 6.1% for the same month.
Earlier in Japan, core machinery orders for October year-on-year jumped 10.3%, far outpacing the gain of 1.4% seen with the month-on-month pace up 10.7%, well above the expected 1.5% drop.
Japan's Cabinet Office has forecast that core orders will rise 2.9% on quarter in October-December after slumping 10.0% in the third quarter and rising 2.9% in the second quarter. The increase is expected be led by electronic communications equipment, industrial machinery and rail cars.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.91%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.65%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.07%.