Asian stock markets: Japan CPI, Jackson Hole

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region mostly fell on Friday as investors awaited comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the meeting of international central bankers in Jackson Hole.

In the past, Powell has outlined comprehensive policy initiatives in Jackson Hole and given indications of the future political direction of the United States.

In Asia, data from Japan showed that the country's inflation stood at 2.8% in July, unchanged from the previous month.

Core inflation, which excludes fresh food prices, was 2.7 percent, in line with expectations of economists polled by Reuters and higher than the June reading of 2.6 percent.

However, the so-called “core-core” inflation rate, which excludes both fresh food and energy prices and is tracked by the Bank of Japan, fell from 2.2 percent in June to 1.9 percent in July.

This is the lowest core-to-core inflation rate since September 2022.

Japan's Nikkei225 Gains were erased, with the index down 0.11%, while the Topix rose slightly.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told the country's parliament on Friday that the central bank would monitor market movements “extremely vigilantly,” adding that markets remained unstable, Reuters reported.

South Korea's Kospi was down 0.51% and the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.58%.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.43%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.73%, while the CSI 300 in mainland China extended its losses for the fourth consecutive day, declining slightly.

Early Friday Alibaba Group announced in a statement that it would convert its secondary listing in Hong Kong to a primary listing, which would give the company a dual listing in both Hong Kong and New York.

“Our voluntary transition to a dual primary listing does not involve the issuance of new shares or the raising of funds,” it said.

In the US, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite posted the biggest loss of all three major indexes overnight, losing 1.67%, as technology stocks felt the brunt of Thursday's losses.

The wide S&P500 lost 0.89%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.43%.

— CNBC's Alex Harring and Pia Singh contributed to this report.