Asia-Pacific markets started the week broadly lower, with Chinese markets dragged down by property stocks and Japan’s service inflation rising to a 45-month high.
Data showed that Japan’s services PPI rose 2.3% in October, the highest level since January 2020 and up from the previous month’s reading of 2%.
On Monday, government data showed China’s industrial profits continued to shrink in November, but at the slowest pace in almost a year.
The world’s second largest economy will release its official factory activity figures for November on Thursday, while the Caixin survey for the same metric will be released on Friday.
Australia will release its October inflation figures on Wednesday, which will provide clues to the central bank’s policy moves. India’s gross domestic product figures for the three months to September will be released late on Thursday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.04%, while mainland Chinese markets were also in negative territory, with the CSI 300 Index down 1.03%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.44%, reversing gains made earlier in the day.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was also down 0.43%, but the index is close to breaching its 33-year high of 33,753.33 hit on 3 July. The Topix was down 0.39%.
South Korea’s Kospi was the only major benchmark in positive territory, up 0.1%, but the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.36%.
In the US on Friday, the three major indexes were mixed in a shortened trading session.
The 30-stock Dow was up 0.33%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.06%. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.11%.
Major retailers were slightly higher as Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season. Walmart and Target rose 0.9% and 0.74% respectively, while Amazon gained 0.02%.
