SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday morning trade as investors watched for market reaction to the release of a slightly hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report.

China will release its March trade data at 11:01 a.m. (HK/SIN) today.

Chinese stock markets traded in negative territory prior to the trade data release. mainland’s Covid situationContinue to influence investor sentiment

Shanghai’s composite fell 0.7% and Shenzhen was down 0.91%. Hong Kong Hang Seng indexAlso, the decline was 0.48%.

The Nikkei 225Japan saw a rise of 1.25%, while Topix rose 0.68%.

South Korea KospiThe percentage of the increase in sales was 0.7%, S&P/ASX 200Australia was 0.2% higher

The MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific stocks, outside Japan, traded 0.2% higher.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will also announce their interest rate decision on Wednesday at 10:00 AM HK/SIN.

According to data published Tuesday, U.S. consumer price indexes rose 8.5% in March compared to a year earlier, which is the largest annual increase since December 1981. Consumer price index prints were higher than the Dow Jones forecast of 8.4%.

But, there were signs that the core consumer price indicator, which excludes energy and food, may have begun to decline. This was 0.3% higher than the 0.5% estimated.

Inflation reports released Tuesday confirm expectations for an increase of 50 basis points by the Fed. U.S. Federal ReserveSilvia Dall’Angelo was a senior economist with Federated Hermes. She wrote a note in May.

The US CPI inflation may have reached its peak in this month. This assumes that there has been no further conflict in Ukraine, and that oil prices continue to move in the right direction. Dall’Angelo noted that “there are still substantial external and internal price pressures,”

Wall Street shares lost overnight due to the U.S. inflation report. Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 87.72 point, or 0.26 percent, to 34.220.36. The S&P 500 dipped 0.34% to 4,397.45 while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.3% to 13,371.57.

The U.S. dollar indexThe greenback was compared to a basket that its peers. It was still at 100.362, just above the 100 mark.

The Japanese yenIt traded at 125.57 dollars, a level that is weaker than earlier levels against the greenback of below 125.1. The Australian dollarIt was 0.7451 after an increase from $0.744 yesterday.

The morning Asia trading hour saw oil prices rise, and international benchmarks were also higher. Brent crude futuresThe barrel price rose fractionally to $104.70 U.S. crude futuresBarrel prices rose 0.3% to $100.73

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.