Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday after China’s latest stimulus measures underwhelmed and its October inflation numbers came in lower than expected, prompting concerns over the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
Beijing announced a five-year stimulus package worth 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) to tackle local government debt problems on Friday. However, some analysts doubt it is enough to meaningfully stimulate growth.
The country’s inflation rate declined to 0.3%, missing expectations of 0.4% and also lower than the 0.4% seen in September. Inflation fell for a second straight month and dropped to its lowest in four months, LSEG data showed.
On Monday, China kicks off its Singles’ Day — the equivalent of Black Friday in the country. A note from ING on Friday said that Singles’ Day will show how consumption was faring in China.
“We suspect that given the shift toward value-for-money purchases and online shopping, we’ll continue to see solid growth numbers from the event that should comfortably outpace the overall consumption growth momentum.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.62% in its final hour, while mainland China’s CSI 300 climbed 0.66%. to 4,131.13.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was marginally higher at 39,533.32, while the broad-based Topix slipped 0.09% to close at 2,739.68.
South Korea’s Kospi was down 1.15%, ending at 2,531.66 and marking its lowest level since Sept. 11, and the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.96% to finish at 728.84.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.43%, closing at 8,266.2.
On Friday in the U.S., the stock market climbed to fresh highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 notching their best week in a year after Donald Trump’s election win.
The blue-chip Dow rose 259.65 points, or 0.59%, to close at 43,988.99. During the session, the Dow traded above 44,000 for the first time ever
The S&P 500 gained 0.38% to close at 5,995.54, after briefly trading above 6,000. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose just 0.09% to 19,286.78.
