Asia-Pacific markets traded lower on Wednesday, with technology stocks leading declines as regional investors followed their United States peers lower amid a rise in global bond yields overnight.
By 11.40 am AEST (1.40 am GMT), Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 had fallen 2.1%, while South Korea's KOSPI 200 declined 4.6%.
In Japan, SoftBank Group dropped 6.8%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 2.0%.
South Korean technology stocks also came under heavy pressure, with SK Hynix falling 7.1% and Samsung Electronics declining 5.8%.
Australian wage data provided a focus for local investors, with the Wage Price Index rising 0.8% in the June quarter of 2026 and 3.2% annually on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Rachael McCririck, ABS head of prices statistics, said: "Annual wage growth of 3.2% is slightly down from 3.4% at the same time last year.
“Although we’re currently below the late 2023 peak of 4.3%, annual wage growth remains above the 2.2% that we were seeing in the December quarter 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.“
Elsewhere, Japan's core machinery orders, a leading indicator of business spending, rose 9.7% in June from the previous month, rebounding from a 12.4% decline in May, according to the Cabinet Office.
Core orders increased 16.9% from a year earlier. Manufacturing orders jumped 19.9%, while non-manufacturing orders, excluding ships and electric power, rose 4.5%.
In the U.S. on Tuesday, major benchmarks finished lower, with the Dow losing 0.2%, the S&P 500 falling 0.7% and the Nasdaq declining 1.3%.
In commodities, ICE Brent crude finished 0.2% higher at US$91.02 a barrel, while spot gold declined 1.9% to settle at US$4,334.14 an ounce.
In China, the SSE Composite Index finished 0.2% higher at 3,990.3, while the CSI 300 declined 0.3% to 4,725.8.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.1% to 25,471.2, while India's BSE Sensex fell 0.6% to 77,235.5.
European markets finished mixed on Tuesday. The UK's FTSE 100 added 0.1% to 10,728.0, Germany's DAX fell 0.8% to 26,128.4, and France's CAC 40 declined 0.8% to 8,509.4.
