Asia-Pacific equity markets are down this morning following falls in US and European markets yesterday. A gauge of Asian stocks has now fallen for six sessions in a row and is on course to record its worst weekly performance out of the last eight. Ongoing concerns about the situation in China and concerns that global interest rates could stay higher for longer were cited as being behind the moves. In Japan, annual CPI inflation in July was unchanged from June at 3.3% and inflation excluding fresh food and energy prices rose to 4.3% from 4.2%. That may support the case for a shift in Japan’s ultra-easy monetary policy ... (full story)