Commercial and residential buildings seen from the rooftop of the Lotte Corp. World Tower at sunset in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023.
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Asia-Pacific markets open mixed on Monday as investors look toward a packed week of economic data and assess China’s business activity figures released over the weekend.
Among the economic data coming out from major markets in the region are inflation data from South Korea, Australia’s second-quarter GDP data, as well as data on pay and household spending from Japan later this week.
China released its official purchasing managers’ index data for August. The manufacturing PMI fell to a six month low of 49.1, a faster contraction compared to the 49.4 seen in July.
The figure also missed the median forecast of 49.5 from economists polled by Reuters, with the index marking its fourth straight month in contraction territory.
On the other hand, China’s non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.3, up from July’s 50.2.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.94%, crossing the 39,000 mark for the first time since July 31, while the broad based Topix was 0.49% higher.
In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.49%, while the small cap Kosdaq was marginally lower.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.43%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures sat at 17,785, lower than the HSI’s last close of 17,989.07.
In the U.S. on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a fresh record high, with the blue-chip index jumping 0.55% to close at 41,563.08. The S&P 500 advanced 1.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.13%.
On Friday, traders also assessed key inflation data watched closely by the Federal Reserve.
The personal consumption expenditures price index, rose 0.2% on a monthly basis in July and 2.5% from a year ago, in line with estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones.
Excluding food and energy, it also rose 0.2% from the prior month.
—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
