Asian shares mixed after Wall St falls on rate hike worries

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed Thursday in Asia after Wall Street gave back some of its recent gains on persisting uncertainty over interest rates and inflation.

Benchmarks declined in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney but rose in Hong Kong and Shanghai. U.S. futures were higher while oil prices edged up.

Wall Street retreated Wednesday following a set of mixed earnings reports. The pullback also followed comments Tuesday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who signaled that an exceptionally strong U.S. jobs report last Friday would not oblige the central bank to return to a more aggressive stance on raising interest rates to tame inflation.

Another Fed official, John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said Wednesday that he still thinks the Fed’s main interest rate hitting a target of 5% to 5.5% by the end of the year is “a very reasonable view.” The federal funds rate is now at a range of 4.50% to 4.75%. Williams spoke at a CFO Network summit hosted by the Wall Street Journal.

“Traders are keeping a close eye on policymakers’ remarks to position accordingly ahead of key upcoming inflation figures and job market data before next month’s rate decision," Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.1% to 27,584.35 and the Kospi in Seoul was little changed at 2,483.16. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.5% to 7,490.30. In Mumbai, the Sensex gained 0.1%. Shares fell in Bangkok, Taiwan and Singapore.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.3% to 21,557.09, while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 1% to 3,266.14.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1% to 4,117.86 and the Nasdaq fell 1.7% to 11,910.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.6% to 33,949.01.

The Fed has been saying that it plans to hike...