Asian shares mostly lower, tracking Wall Street retreat

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares have fallen in Asia after Wall Street gave back some of its recent gains on persisting uncertainty over interest rates and inflation. Benchmarks declined in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney but rose in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Wall Street retreated following a set of mixed earnings reports. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% Wednesday, the Nasdaq fell 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.6%. The pullback followed comments Tuesday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who signaled that an exceptionally strong U.S. jobs report last Friday would not oblige the central bank to return to a more aggressive stance on raising interest rates to tame inflation.