Wednesday saw a decline in most Asian markets as technology-heavy indices dropped ahead of market favourite Nvidia's results, while Australian stocks plummeted due to a sticky inflation report.

Sentiment towards Asia remained tense due to ongoing worries about China, especially after Canada said it would slap high trade penalties on the largest economy in the area.

Regional markets followed Wall Street's mediocre lead as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 gradually increased to all-time highs. But before Nvidia's reports, the NASDAQ trailed due to some nervousness. An economic shift away from technology and towards more economically sensitive industries was also prompted by expectations of rate cut.

The main focus will be on whether Nvidia can maintain the robust demand for artificial intelligence, which has caused the stock to rise by around 160% in value thus far in 2024.

Asian technology equities will likely be impacted by any news from Nvidia's earnings, which are expected later on Wednesday. Nvidia is seen as a barometer for the AI sector.

The stocks that were directly exposed to Nvidia were not very well. In Taipei trading, Advantest, a Japanese manufacturer of semiconductor testing equipment, had a roughly 3% increase, while Taiwan's TSMC was flat.

Among the worst performing markets in Asia was Australia's ASX 200, which fell 0.6% after July consumer price index data came in higher than anticipated.

Slightly above forecasts and much over the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2% to 3% annual objective, the headline CPI increased by 3.5%. After officials issued a warning about sticky inflation earlier in August, the reading stoked worries that it would lead to an RBA rate rise.

The underlying CPI decreased, although it remained comparatively high. 

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)