People look at the city’s skyline from the Bunkyo Civic Center Observation Deck in Tokyo on August 14, 2024.
Philip Fong | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 leading losses in the region, following the weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report on Friday.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 142,000 missing a 161,000 gain estimated by economists polled by Dow Jones. On the other hand, the unemployment rate edged down to 4.2%, in line with expectations.
Traders in Asia will assess Japan’s revised GDP figure for the second quarter and China’s consumer price index report coming Monday. Japan’s second-quarter GDP came in at 2.9% on an annualized basis, less than the 3.2% expected by economists polled by Reuters and the advance figure of 3.1%.
China’s inflation rate is expected to grow 0.7% in August from a year ago compared to 0.5% in July.
The Nikkei lost 3% while the broad-based Topix fell 2.79%. The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% against the U.S. dollar to 142.55, coming off a nine-month low achieved on Friday.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.99% while the small cap Kosdaq was down 1.72%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,443, lower than the HSI’s last close of 17,444.3.
On Friday, the S&P 500 notched its worst week since March 2023. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite recorded its worst week since March 2022.
During Friday’s session, the broad index slid 1.73% while the Nasdaq slid 2.55%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.01%.
—CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
