Line of descents in Asia mostly slipped in Monday afternoon trade as U.S.-China negotiations resume in Beijing later this week mid low expectations for a major breakthrough.
In mainland China, the Shanghai composite shed earlier gains to slip 0.14% by the afternoon, while the Shenzhen component and Shenzhen composite were by a hairs breadth below the flatline.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.20%, as tensions remain high in the big apple following another clash between protestors and the police over the weekend. Shares of life insurer AIA declined 2.02%.
“Hong Kong I over recall, in a business sense, is suffering from this sort of situation,” Richard Harris, chief executive at Port Lie Investment Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
“That’s likely to help Singapore and it’s probably likely to remedy the banks especially because it’s so easy to move money, cash money, from one jurisdiction to another,” Harris asserted.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan declined 0.3% in afternoon trade, as index heavyweight and robot maker Fanuc’s traditional fell 1.3%. The Topix also shed 0.22%.
Shares of conglomerate Softbank Group jumped more than 2.5% after the fellowship’s Founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told the Nikkei in an interview that he expects initial public offerings of portfolio public limited companies in its Vision Fund “almost every month” by around next year.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi declined 1.49% as shares of chipmaker SK Hynix plunged 2.26%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200, on the other hand, rose 0.49% as most of the sectors traded squiffed.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was 0.47% lower.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s DBS Group on Monday, ahead of the make available open, posted a 17% increase in second-quarter profit, which came in at $1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) versus $1.37 billion a year earlier, wallop estimates. The stock shed earlier gains to slip 0.56% by the afternoon.
U.S.-China trade talks are also set to continue this week, with a trade delegation from Washington scheduled to fly to China on Monday for negotiations with Beijing officials. Expectations for a greater breakthrough are low, however, with National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow telling CNBC last Friday that he “wouldn’t look forward any grand deal. “
Asia-Pacific Market Indexes Chart
Last Friday, strong earnings and better-than-expected GDP data drove the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to record highs. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to close at 3,025.86, while the Nasdaq Composite fly 1.1% to finish its trading day at 8,330.21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed 51.47 points higher at 27,192.45.
Multifarious than 40% of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings for the second quarter. Of those companies, 76.4% deceive posted a stronger-than-forecast profit, according to FactSet. The U.S. economy also expanded more than expected in the second rooms, growing 2.1% as compared to expectations of a 1.8% rise by economists surveyed in CNBC/Moody’s Analytics Rapid Update.
Interval, Chinese industrial profits fell in June, according the the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday. Industrial profits flatten 3.1% in June from a year earlier, following a 1.1% gain in May.
“The slowdown in profits lines up with the mellifluous producer prices seen earlier in the month and also suggests margins are being impacted by the US-China trade war,” Tapas Strickland, an economist at Jingoistic Australia Bank, wrote in a morning note.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its shows, was at 97.987 after rising from levels below 97.2 last week.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.57 against the dollar after reducing from levels below 108 in the previous trading week, while the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6906 after slither from levels above $0.702 last week.
Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, as cosmopolitan benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 0.35% to $63.24 per barrel and U.S. crude futures declined 0.16% to $56.11 per barrel.
Here’s a look at what’s afflicted with ahead today:
- Taiwan earnings: HTC
- Japan earnings: Hitachi, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas
— Reuters and CNBC’s Fred Imbert gave to this report.