Asian markets traded mixed early on Monday while oil prices edged up after recording six straight days of declines.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.83 percent, with heavily weighted technology stocks higher in the morning. Samsung Electronics rebounded 2.64 percent and SK Hynix gained 0.41 percent. Financials also traded higher in the early going.
Shipbuilders were mostly in negative territory, with Samsung Heavy down 3.17 percent. Hyundai Heavy Industries declined 1.54 percent after it reported a miss on fourth-quarter earnings on Friday after the market close.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.25 percent as earnings season continued Down Under. Energy-related stocks were down 0.66 percent in the morning as oil prices rebounded after sliding for six straight sessions. Santos fell 1.03 percent and Beach Energy lost 3.1 percent.
Gold producers were also weak: Newcrest Mining and Evolution Mining were down 0.5 percent and 1.97 percent, respectively. Australian retailers were in the red, with Myer underperforming its peers in the sector and trading down 5.13 percent early on.
The heavily weighted financials sub-index was off by 0.62 percent.
Greater China markets traded in positive territory after taking a beating last week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.33 percent in early trade. Financial stocks traded mixed in the morning, with HSBC higher by 0.38 percent, but China Construction Bank flat on the day.
Casino stocks were firmly in positive territory, while energy-related names and telecommunications stocks traded lower. Index heavyweight Tencent jumped 2.5 percent.
On the mainland, the Shanghai composite slipped 0.14 percent and the Shenzhen composite surged 1.42 percent.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures implied a positive open ahead of the U.S. market open on Monday.
Japanese markets are closed on Monday in observance of a public holiday.
Heavy declines were seen in Asian markets last week: Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed lower by 2.32 percent in the previous session and was down 11.38 percent from its 52-week high as of Friday.
Greater China markets were some of the worst performers last week, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index 11.88 percent below its 52-week high as of Friday.
Those losses mirrored declines seen stateside on investor concerns over rising interest rates. The global rout in stock markets began earlier this month when the Dow lost 666 points after a stronger-than-expected jobs report saw U.S. bond yields rise.
Markets stateside closed higher in the last session although last week was their worst in two years. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 330.44 points, or 1.38 percent, to finish the day at 24,190.90.
Despite those gains, the Dow still finished the week lower by 5.2 percent.
“The severity of the falls globally … suggest we may have already seen the worst, but with bond yields likely to go back up further and uncertainty about how much the unwinding of short volatility positions has to go, further weakness cannot be ruled out in the short term,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at chief economist of AMP Capital, said in a Friday note.
Still, in the absence of a recession, “the pullback is just another correction,” Oliver added.
Rob Carnell, chief economist and Asia Pacific head of research at ING, said in a Monday note that what was happening in stock and bond markets “will be delivering pain to some,” but would not be a meltdown.
Also of note, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a roughly $300 billion budget plan into law after the U.S. Congress passed the bill earlier that day.
On the commodities front, oil prices rebounded after sinking on Friday for a sixth straight day. Those declines came on the back of rising production and the firmer dollar last week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 1.17 percent to trade at $59.89 per barrel after falling below the $59 level on Friday for the first time this year. Brent crude futures edged higher by 1.05 percent to trade at $63.45.
In currencies, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of rivals, edged down to trade at 90.230. Against the yen, the dollar was softer at 108.68 at 10:39 a.m. HK/SIN.
The Australian dollar was a touch firmer at $0.7823.
Here’s the economic calendar for Monday (all times in HK/SIN):
- 1:00 p.m.: Singapore retail sales
- 5:00 p.m.: China new yuan loans
- 8:00 p.m.: India industrial output
- 8:00 p.m.: India January Consumer Price Index
