Asian stocks declined early on Monday, as markets took cues from declines in Wall Street’s last session, with focus this week shifting to the Bank of Japan.
The Nikkei 225 declined 0.69 percent, with falls in utilities, energy and pharmaceuticals weighing on the overall index in the morning. The broader Topix traded lower by 0.47 percent.
Elsewhere, the Kospi shed 0.48 percent amid losses in large cap technology names. Index bellwether Samsung Electronics lost 0.75 percent and SK Hynix fell 1.03 percent.
Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 eased 0.58 percent as all sectors barring telecommunications traded in negative territory. Losses in the morning were led by the drop in the consumer discretionary subindex, while heavily weighted “Big Four” banks all traded lower.
The negativity in the Asian session followed declines in U.S. stocks seen on Friday as earnings news stateside overshadowed the release of solid second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data, with tech leading the losses.
Intel shares fell in the previous session on the chipmaker announcing delays for next generation chips while Twitter sank after reporting a drop in monthly active users. That contributed to a second day of steep losses for the tech sector after the plunge in Facebook’s stock on Thursday.
Meanwhile, U.S. second-quarter GDP grew at 4.1 percent, in line with expectations, with a jump in consumer spending and business investment contributing to the figure. That was the quickest pace of growth since 2014.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down by 0.3 percent, or 76.01 points, to 25,451.06, the S&P 500 finished the session lower by 0.66 percent at 2,818.82 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.46 percent to 7,737.42.
In foreign exchange, the U.S. currency was steady after softening on Friday, with the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of peers, last trading at 94.662.
Against the yen, the dollar was stable for the most part at 110.93 at 8:05 a.m. HK/SIN ahead of the Bank of Japan’s statement on monetary policy due on Tuesday. The central bank begins its policy meeting on Monday.
Stateside, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee will embark on its two-day meeting on Tuesday, with the central bank expected to announce its decision during Wednesday U.S. hours.
On the commodities front, Brent crude futures were mostly firm at $74.31 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.38 percent to trade at $68.95.
In individual movers, Hotel Shilla was up 3.06 percent after rising more than 6 percent earlier in the session. The company reported a 303 percent increase in operating income after the market close on Friday.
Other companies due to report earnings on Monday include Hang Lung Properties and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
