Asia-Pacific markets mostly climb as Japan’s GDP growth beats expectations; China reports mixed economic data

Asia-Pacific markets largely rose on Thursday after Japan’s GDP growth beat expectations, while traders also digested China retail sales, industrial output and urban unemployment data for July.

China’s retail sales grew 2.7% year on year, beating expectations for a 2.6% growth from economists polled by Reuters. Industrial output on the other hand, grew 5.1% compared to forecasts of 5.2%. The urban unemployment rate climbed slightly to 5.2% from 5% in June.

Japan’s second-quarter gross domestic product beat market expectations on a quarter-on-quarter basis, climbing 0.8% compared to forecasts of a 0.5% rise from economists polled by Reuters.

This was also a reversal from the revised 0.6% fall seen in the first quarter.

However, on a year-on-year basis, the country’s GDP fell for a second straight quarter, down 0.8% and extending from the first quarter’s contraction of 0.9%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded up 0.6%, while the Topix was up 0.9%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose marginally, after its unemployment rate for July ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 4.2%. The country’s participation rate also climbed to 67.1%, beating the 66.9% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.7%, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 dipped 0.24%.

South Korea’s and India’s markets are closed for a public holiday.

Wall Street stocks rose overnight after U.S. inflation data met market expectations.

U.S. consumer prices increased 2.9% year over year, down from 3% in June and the lowest reading since March 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday. Month-over-month, prices ticked up 0.2%.

Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a 0.2% increase from the prior month and a 3% gain year-over-year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.61%. The S&P 500 rose 0.38% and marked its fifth straight winning day, while the Nasdaq Composite reversed earlier losses to close 0.03% higher.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.