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Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up on Monday morning as investors bargain-hunted after the previous week’s selloff. However, concerns about the spread of COVID-19’s Delta strain and regulatory tightening in China continued, capping some of the gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.38% by 9:41 PM ET (1:41 AM GMT). South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.05%, with the Bank of Korea handing down its latest policy decision on Thursday.
In Australia, the ASX 200 edged up 0.12%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.27%. China’s Shanghai Composite inched up 0.01% and the Shenzhen Component slid 1.61%. China looks set to continue its regulatory tightening across sectors, with investors monitoring the impact on shares in Chinese and Hong Kong shares which lost more than $560 billion in the previous week alone.
All eyes are also on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium that opens on Aug. 26, where further clues on the timeline for asset tapering and interest rate hikes are expected. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan did provide a potential clue ahead of the symposium, saying that he could adjust his views of beginning asset tapering soon should the COVID-19 Delta variant continue to spread and impact the economic recovery.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen endorsed Jerome Powell for a second term as Fed Chairman.
It is also a busy week data-wise in the U.S., with existing home sales and Markit Composite purchasing managers index (PMI) data due later in the day alongside the manufacturing and services PMIs. The U.S. GDP is out on Thursday, followed by the core personal consumption expenditures price index, an inflation measure closely watched by the Fed, on Friday alongside personal income and spending data.
Global shares are slowly starting to recover from the previous week’s carnage, but the COVID-19 concerns and worries about the Fed beginning asset tapering sooner than expected that contributed to reduced risk appetite remain.
“Markets react to interest-rate hikes much more than tapering and we expect a pause between tapering and the first hike, suggesting liftoff in 2023 and not before,” Natixis Investment Managers head of global market strategy Esty Dwek said in a note, which added that COVID-19 is still with us and growth will soften into 2022.
