South Korea CPI, Nasdaq hits new records

Asia-Pacific markets fell on Tuesday, despite gains on Wall Street that saw the Nasdaq Composite reached a new record on the strength of tech stocks.

The index was led by gains in Microsoft, Apple and chipmaker Nvidia. It advanced 0.83% to end at 17,879.3.

Traders in Asia are assessing South Korea’s inflation numbers which came in at 2.4% for June, missing expectations by economists polled by Reuters who predicted a inflation rate of 2.7%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell by 0.41% while the broad-based Topix stayed flat.

The Japanese yen weakened to a fresh 38-year low against the greenback, reaching as low as 161.67.

South Korea’s Kospi was 0.22% lower and the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.39% lower after the inflation data was released.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.15% in early trade.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,556, lower than the HSI’s last close of 17,718.61.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 recorded gains, rising 0.13% and 0.27% respectively.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.