Mounting fears of a U.S. recession and weaker-than-expected inflation statistics wobble stocks.

Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday, mirroring Wall Street's overnight losses, on mounting fears of a U.S. recession, mostly weaker-than-expected inflation statistics, and prospects of a slowdown in the Federal Reserve's rate hiking cycle.

This week, Hong Kong's technological giants were still hurting from losses after large Tencent shareholder Prosus announced plans to sell further shares in the internet giant.

However, larger Asian markets were trading in a flat-to-low range after the minutes of the Fed’s March meeting revealed that officials were concerned about a mild recession this year. While the central bank is expected to suspend its rate rise cycle in the near future, a subsequent slowdown in economic development might be bad news for risk-taking Asian markets.

The US dollar moved higher in early European trade, but remained weak as lower-than-anticipated inflation statistics raised the prospect of the Federal Reserve's rate-tightening cycle ending sooner than expected.

Consumer prices in the United States rose 0.1% in March, according to statistics released Wednesday, for a 5.0% annual increase, the weakest 12-month advance since May 2021.

This was lower than the 5.2% forecast, but underlying inflation pressures remained robust, with core CPI climbing 5.6% on an annual basis, up from 5.5% the previous month.

These figures suggest that the Fed will hike interest rates again next month.

Nevertheless, expectations are building that the United States' central bank will reduce interest rates before the year is up, particularly after the minutes from the last Fed meeting in March revealed estimates of a small recession later this year.

Further inflation data will be released on Thursday, including producer prices, which are likely to drop from the same time last year, and jobless claims, which are projected to rise slightly from the previous week.

(investing.com, reuters.com)