Asia-Pacific markets largely fell on Monday as investors look toward key data from Japan and China this week.
Japan’s gross domestic product for the second quarter will be out on Tuesday, as well as its inflation print for Friday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.1% to start the week, but the Topix was up 0.12%.
South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.3%, and the Kosdaq saw a larger loss of 0.85%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.37% lower.
China will release industrial production and retail sales for July, as well as house prices on Tuesday.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 18,857, pointing to a weaker open compared to compared to the HSI’s close of 19.075.19. This would be the first time in almost a month that the HSI went lower than the 19,000 mark.
On Friday in the U.S., markets ended the week mixed, with the Nasdaq Composite ending Friday 0.6% lower and notched its second consecutive losing week in 2023, pulled down by a selloff in semiconductor stocks such as Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and Micron.
The S&P 500 inched lower by 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, helped by advances of 2.1% and 1.8% in Chevron and Merck & Co., respectively.
