Chinese markets slip after Wall Street bounces back; oil drops more than 3%

SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific region mostly traded lower on Wednesday, as Wall Street bounced back after a turbulent week. Oil futures dropped around 3%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 gave up early gains to trade flat, while the Topix was 0.14% higher.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 1.74%, while the Kosdaq was declined 2.42%.

Markets in mainland China were lower. The Shanghai Composite slid 0.15%, and the Shenzhen Component was down 0.15%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 0.54%.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia slipped 0.04%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declined 0.75%.

Major indexes in the U.S. jumped on Tuesday after weeks of declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 641.47 points or 2.15% to 30,530.25, while the S&P 500 rose 2.45% to 3,764.79. The tech-focused Nasdaq advanced 2.51% to 11,069.302.

"The rebound in U.S. equities overnight … will be taken with a pinch of salt as elevated inflation and risks to growth persist," Lavanya Venkateswaran, an economist at Mizuho Bank, said in a note.

The Bank of Japan, after maintaining its ultra-low interest rates last week, released the minutes from its April monetary policy meeting on Wednesday morning.

"Many members expressed the view that underlying inflation, measured by the CPI excluding such factors as energy, remained relatively low," the minutes said.

Most members of BOJ policy board expect short-term and long-term interest rates to remain at their present levels or lower, the minutes added.

The Japanese yen crossed the 136 level on Tuesday and was last at 136.13 against the greenback. The currency has been weakening as the Bank of Japan's monetary policy diverges from that of the Fed.

Experts previously told CNBC that the main focus of the central bank is not exchange rates but inflation.

Oil futures declined more than 3% in Asia trade. International benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 3.27% to $110.90 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also dropped by 3.62% to $105.56 per barrel.

Reuters reported that U.S. President Joe Biden plans to call for a temporary suspension of the 18.4-cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline in a bid to bring down soaring energy costs.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, last traded at 104.624.

The Australian dollar was at $0.6939, after falling from levels above $0.702 late last week.