US CPI, Japan GDP, China unemployment

Asia-Pacific markets were largely up on Thursday after Japan’s GDP growth beat expectations, and also tracking Wall Street stocks that rose overnight after U.S. inflation data met market expectations.

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.

Traders in Asia will look toward a slew of economic data from the region on Thursday, with Japan releasing its second-quarter gross domestic numbers and China publishing retail sales, industrial output and urban unemployment data for July.

Japan’s second quarter gross domestic product has beat 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 0.2%, while the Topix was up 0.5%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,009, lower than the HSI’s last close of 17,113.36.

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

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rose after the inflation data release, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 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 higher by 0.03%.

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