Asia-Pacific stocks mostly rose Monday as markets kickstarted what ING calls a “quiet” week for economic data from the region.
Key data this week from Asia will include China’s loan prime rate, set to be released Wednesday. ING said no change is expected in China’s LPR, with the one-year rate currently at 3.1% and the five-year LPR at 3.6%.
Japan will release trade data on Tuesday and October headline inflation numbers on Friday, while Australia’s central bank on Tuesday will release minutes of its meeting earlier this month.
Japan’s markets were the outlier in the region, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 down 1.04%, and the broad-based Topix 0.72% lower.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.65%, leading gains in Asia, powered by the rise in heavyweight Samsung Electronics, while the small-cap Kosdaq reversed losses to climb 0.43%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.18% to 8,300.2, marking a third straight session of gains and hitting its highest closing level in about a month.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.88% higher, while mainland China’s CSI 300 gained 0.26%.
On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes on Wall Street declined as investors worried about the path of interest rates and sold off pharmaceutical stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.70%, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.32% and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.24%.
Losses in pharmaceuticals weighed on the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500, with Amgen falling about 4.2% and Moderna sliding 7.3%.
This comes after President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday that he planned to nominate vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
