Asia markets poised to fall ahead of Powell’s Friday Jackson Hole speech

Asia-Pacific markets are set to fall as investors prepared for signals on U.S. monetary policy from central bankers’ comments at the Jackson Hole meeting on Friday, including a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

In Asia, Japan will release its inflation rate for the capital city of Tokyo. Core inflation — which strips out prices of fresh food — is expected to come in at 2.9%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 is set to fall and snap four straight days of gains, with the futures contract in Chicago at 31,760 and its counterpart in Osaka at 31,690 against the index’s last close of 32,287.21.

In Australia, futures for the S&P/ASX 200 also point to a lower open, at 7,045 compared to the last close of 7,182.1.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 18,053, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 18,212.17.

On Thursday in the U.S., all three major indexes fell as the tech fueled rally ended, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average seeing its worst day since March, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite saw their biggest one-day loss since Aug. 2.

The Dow closed 1.08% lower and the S&P 500 lost 1.35%. The Nasdaq saw the largest loss, shedding 1.87%.

— CNBC’s Sarah Min and Alex Harring contributed to this report