SINGAPORE — Stocks in Japan led losses in major Asia-Pacific markets on Friday as the recent rally in U.S. stocks broke momentum with the Nasdaq snapping a three-day winning streak.

Japan’s Nikkei 225The Topix fell nearly 2%, while it tumbled by 2%. Tech stocks and autos both declined. SoftBankThis was an increase of 2.25% SonyLoss of nearly 3%

Hong Kong Hang Seng index fell 0.71. Hang Seng Tech lost 1.64% AlibabaThe decline was 3.56% JD fell 4%.

Stocks in China’s mainland suffered as the Shanghai composite fell by 0.32% and the Shenzhen component rose by 0.48%.

South Korea KospiIt was down 1.8% and Australia’s ASX 200 fell by 0.96%.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s central bank raised its benchmark rate25 basis points increased to 1.25%. It is now the highest level since March 2020.

Corporate news from the region Citi is set to sell its retail businesses in four Southeast Asian countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam — to Singapore lender United Overseas Bank (UOB). UOB reported that Citi’s consumer division had a net asset of approximately $4 billion Singapore dollar ($2.9 billion).

UOB released a statement saying that the total premium for the acquisition would be $915 million Singapore dollar and will also include the Net Asset Value of Citi’s Consumer Business.

UOB shares rose by 1.13% after the announcement.

China’s December exports were slightly higher than what was expected. However, imports rose less than predicted. according to customs data released Friday.

Over the 20.9% increase predicted by a Reuters poll, exports rose by 20% year-over-year in U.S. dollars terms.

In U.S. dollars terms, imports increased by 19.5%, which was below the expected 26.3% growth.

Exports exceeded expectations in December which could reflect Omicron’s damage to global supply chains. Zhiwei Zhiwei Zhang (chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management) wrote that China may have received export orders from countries other than China in a follow-up note to the release of data.

He said, “On the contrary, the global demand was strong as the developed countries continue their policies to maintain economic activity unrestricted.”

The inflation concerns remained a major focus. data stateside showed the producer price index, which measures prices received by producers of goods, services and construction, was up 0.2% for December. In 2021, the wholesale prices rose nearly 10%. This is the biggest annual increase in data dating back to 2010.

Elsewhere, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to bring down his country’s soaring inflationThe December 36% mark was a result of the central bank’s preparation for a rate-setting meeting next week.

The U.S. dollar indexThe greenback was still at 94.783 as the indices of other currencies were updated. This is a continuation of the slide that began the week.

The Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 113.81, a significant increase from the levels of 114. The Australian dollarIt was $0.7267 lower than it had been, but still a good deal.

Oil prices fell during Asia hours. Brent futures dropped 0.3% at $84.28 and U.S crude fell by 0.35% to $81.84 a barrel.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.