Shares in the Asia Pacific fall; Australia retail sales data ahead

SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific fell on Wednesday after Wall Street's negative performance on Tuesday. Investors will also be looking forward to Australia's retail sales report and Japan's consumer confidence data release.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan was down 0.95%, and the Topix slipped 0.87%. Retail sales in Japan rose 3.6% in May compared to a year ago, a third consecutive month of growth, government data showed.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.23% lower.

In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 1.53%, while the Kosdaq fell 1.52%.

South Korea's consumer sentiment index fell, standing at 96.4 for June 2022, down 6.2 points from May's print, according to Bank of Korea's survey.

U.S. stocks gave up early gains to decline overnight following disappointing economic data. The consumer confidence index fell to 98.7 in June from 103.2 in May, according to The Conference Board.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 491.27 points, or 1.56%, to 30,946.99. The S&P 500 slipped 2.01% to 3,821.55, and the Nasdaq Composite was the laggard, declined 3% to 11,181.54.

Later today, Japan will release its consumer confidence data and Australia is set to report its retail sales data for May. Retail sales rose 0.9% in April.

Elsewhere in the region, China cut the quarantine period for international travelers on Tuesday, in a step away from its strict Covid controls that have been in place for more than two years.

People arriving from overseas will now need to quarantine for seven days upon arrival and three days at home, compared to up to 21 days in a centralized facility previously.

Bloomberg also reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Hong Kong's incoming administration is considering reducing mandatory hotel quarantine to five days, down from seven.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 104.466, bouncing back from below 104 earlier this week.

The Japanese yen weakened past the 136 level against the dollar again, after strengthening and holding steady in the past few sessions. It last changed hands at 136.03. The Australian dollar was at $0.6903.

 Oil futures rose slightly in Asia's morning trade. U.S. crude futures rose 0.3% to $112.09 per barrel, while Brent crude gained 0.25% to $118.28 per barrel.

— CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.