Asian stock markets slipped on Friday as optimism surrounding technology stocks faded, with investors turning their focus to inflation concerns that increased expectations of a U.S. interest rate hike later this year.

Attention remained focused on Beijing, where U.S. President Donald Trump was due to conclude his two-day state visit on Friday. Joining his delegation were Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, and Jensen Huang, head of chipmaker Nvidia.

The Wall Street rally failed to carry over into Asian stock markets. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.2 percent on Friday, erasing more than this week’s earlier gains.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 also declined 1.81 percent after data showed the country’s wholesale inflation accelerated to 4.9 percent in April, marking the fastest pace in three years and reinforcing expectations that the Bank of Japan will continue raising interest rates.

South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index briefly climbed above the 8,000-point mark for the first time, before profit-taking emerged and dragged the index down 5.48 percent.


Meanwhile, China’s CSI 300 Index slipped 0.55 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.34 percent.

Asian chipmakers also declined, with Japan’s Tokyo Electron and Advantest falling between 2 percent and 8 percent. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that chip export controls were not discussed during Thursday’s U.S.-China talks, adding that it was up to Beijing to decide whether it wanted to purchase American chips.

Greer’s remarks largely overshadowed a report published on Thursday stating that Nvidia had been permitted to sell its H200 chip to 10 Chinese companies. Although the report said no sales had yet taken place, semiconductor stocks rallied sharply on Thursday following the news.


Korea's Kospi fell 6.1%, Indonesia's IDX dropped 2%, Japan's Nikkei was down 1.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.6%, and China's Shanghai Index declined 1%.