Asia markets poised to fall after Wall Street rally pauses; China exits deflation territory as prices rise

Asia-Pacific markets were set to fall Monday after Wall Street’s rally took a breather, with artificial intelligence darling Nvidia finishing down more than 5% in its worst session since late May.

Separately, China recorded its first month of inflation in four months with the country’s consumer price index climbing 0.7% year on year in February.

CPI, which had fallen 0.8% in January, and also beat expectations of 0.3% from economists polled by Reuters.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the week down 1.21%, retreating from its all-time high and snapping a three-day winning streak.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set to fall, with the index likely slipping below the 39,000 mark for the first time since Feb. 21. The futures contract in Chicago was at 38,835 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,790 against the index’s last close of 39,688.

In contrast, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,376, pointing to a slightly stronger open compared with the HSI’s close of 16,353.39.

On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes lost ground as investors assessed fresh data, with the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that nonfarm payrolls increased by 275,000 for the month while the jobless rate moved higher to 3.9%.

The S&P 500 lost 0.65%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.16%. Both swung into negative territory after rising to new all-time highs earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average relinquished 0.18%.

— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report