SINGAPORE — Tech stocks in Hong Kong pulled the broader index lower on Monday as Asia markets traded mixed. SoftBank is set to report earnings after the market close.
Alibaba dropped 3.93% and JD.com slipped 3.02%. The Hang Seng index was down 0.75%.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific jumped 2.36% after authorities announced that hotel quarantine for travelers would be reduced to three days from seven days, though there would be a four-day surveillance period after the quarantine.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was mildly lower.
Shares of Oz Minerals spiked 34.83% after the company rejected BHP’s 8.34 billion Australian dollar ($5.76 billion) takeover bid.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.18%, while the Topix index was fractionally higher.
SoftBank shares were 0.78% higher ahead of the earnings announcement.
South Korea’s Kospi was slightly lower and the Kosdaq shed 0.31%.
Chipmaker SK Hynix slipped 2.74% on Monday after the Korea Herald reported that a South Korean city, Yeoju, wants more compensation in exchange for letting the company build pipes to transport huge amounts of water to its plant in a different city.
Mainland China markets were mildly positive. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.19% and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.15%.
Over the weekend, China reported trade data for July that showed dollar-denominated exports grew 18% compared to a year ago.
That’s the fastest pace of growth this year and beat analysts’ expectations for a 15% increase, Reuters reported.
China’s dollar-denominated imports increased 2.3% in July compared to the same period in 2021, lower than the expected 3.7% gain.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.59%.
On Friday in the U.S., nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, far above expectations. Treasury yields rose strongly as traders adjusted their forecasts for Fed rates higher.
“Binary risks between policy-induced recession and run-away inflation continues to grow; imposing much higher dangers of policy miscalculations,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Monday note.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.591 after a sharp jump following the payrolls data release.
The Japanese yen traded at 135.17 per dollar after the greenback strengthened. The Australian dollar was at $0.6929.
U.S. crude futures added 0.2% to $89.19 per barrel, while Brent crude gained 0.29% to $95.20 per barrel.
Source: CNBC