Melbourne city centre skyline alongside the Yarra River.
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Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher on Monday as the region kick-started a data-heavy week, with investors focused on economic readings from several countries, including Japan, South Korea and China.
Over the weekend, China released its official purchasing managers’ index reading for November. Manufacturing PMI came in at 50.3 — its highest level since April — beating the 50.2 expected by economists polled by Reuters. Manufacturing PMI came in at 50.1 in October.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.0 from 50.2 in the previous month, while composite PMI held steady at 50.8.
A reading higher than 50 shows expansion in activity, while below that shows contraction.
On Monday, manufacturing PMI readings from S&P Global will be released for economies throughout Asia, including the Caixin PMI survey for China.
Australia’s retail sales rose 3.4% in October, its fastest year-on-year rise since May 2023.
Indonesia will disclose its inflation numbers for November later in the day.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded up 0.14%, ending at a record closing high of 8,447.9.
South Korea’s markets were the outlier on Monday, after preliminary trade data revealed exports grew at their slowest pace since September 2023 over the weekend.
Exports grew 1.4% year on year in November, missing expectations of a 2.8% growth from economists polled by Reuters and a sharp decline from the 4.6% rise in October.
The Kospi slipped marginally to 2,454.48, and the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.35% to a 23 month low of 675.84.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.8% and closed at 38,513.02, while the broad-based Topix was 1.27% higher at 2,714.72.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.65% in its last hour of trade, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was up 0.79% to close at 3,947.63. The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index advanced about 0.42% after growth in China’s new home prices accelerated in November.
On Friday in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 rose to new heights and recorded their best months of 2024 amid a shortened trading day.
The S&P 500 added 0.56%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.83%. The Dow climbed 188.59 points, or 0.42%. Both the Dow and S&P 500 notched new intraday and closing highs.
Some of the upward momentum came from chip stocks, which popped after Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration was considering additional barriers to the sale of semiconductor equipment to China that weren’t as strong as previously expected. Lam Research rallied more than 3%, while Nvidia jumped more than 2%.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring contributed to this report.
