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Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Monday morning, with investors digesting the latest economic data from China and the outcome of an election in Japan.
China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.29% by 10:02 PM ET (2:02 AM GMT) and the Shenzhen Component fell 0.71%. The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) for October was 50.6, slightly higher than the 50 in forecasts prepared by Investing.com.
The manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs, released the day before, were at 49.2 and 52.4 respectively.
China’s property sector is also in the spotlight, with at least four developers defaulting on bonds in October alone. China Evergrande Group (HK:3333) avoided default twice by paying overdue coupons at the last minute.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.27%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.39% and South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.45%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 gained 0.52%.
In Japan, shares jumped more than 1% after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party preserved its outright majority in Sunday’s election. The surprise result not only prevented the worst-case scenario from unfolding but also paved the way for fiscal stimulus.
A slew of central banks will hand down their policy decisions throughout the week, starting with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday, and the Bank of England on Thursday.
Australian sovereign bonds recovered from their collapse on Friday when the RBA decided against defending its yield target. Short-term bond yields in places such as Australia and Canada rose as bets that interest rate hikes due to inflationary pressures also increased. In the U.S., longer-maturity Treasury yields also rose.
However, fixed-income market volatility suggests that investors anticipate a slowdown in the economic recovery from COVID-19 as persistent inflation prompts central banks to begin asset tapering. Global shares currently remain close to record highs, however.
“Having been bullish on equities it feels right to turn a touch more cautious this week,” Pepperstone Financial Pty head of research Chris Weston said in a note.
“Although, the fact that equities have held up so well considering the rapid re-pricing of interest rates is certainly a positive.”
Meanwhile, the earnings season also continues. Companies including Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB), Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), SoftBank Corp. (T:9434) Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) Corp. (T:7203), and Uber Technologies Inc . (NYSE:UBER) will release their results throughout the week.
