Asia markets poised to fall ahead of China industrial profits data, Australia inflation reading

Asia-Pacific markets were set to largely fall on Wednesday, taking cues from Wall Street as the market rally in the U.S. continued to cool.

Investors in Asia will assess February inflation numbers from Australia, the first inflation reading after the country’s central bank said that “it was not yet possible to rule in or out further increases in interest rates.”

“Inflation had moderated but was still high,” the bank said.

China will also release industrial profit data on Wednesday.

The S&P/ASX 200 started the day marginally above the flatline, extending gains from Tuesday.

In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was set to extend losses from Tuesday, with the futures contract in Chicago at 40,325 and its counterpart in Osaka at 40,250 against the index’s last close of 40,398.03.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,569, pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI’s close of 16,618.32.

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes continued to slide, with the S&P 500 marking a third straight day of losses and falling 0.28%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped marginally, while the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite saw a larger loss of 0.42%.

Nonetheless, the major averages are on pace for their fifth straight winning month despite the recent pullbacks, with the S&P notably up more than 2% in March

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report