People from Tokyo looked at the city’s skyline from the Bunkyo Civic Center Observation Deck on August 14, 2024. The markets in the Asia-Pacific region fell on Monday. The Nikkei 225 in Japan led the losses after the U.S. jobs report was weaker than expected on Friday.
The U.S. nonfarm payrolls only rose by 142,000, missing the 161,000 gain that economists had estimated. But the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, which was expected. Traders in Asia will analyze Japan’s revised GDP figure for the second quarter and China’s consumer price index report.
Japan’s second-quarter GDP was 2.9% on an annualized basis, lower than the 3.2% expected. China’s inflation rate grew by 0.6% year-on-year, below the expected 0.7%.
The Nikkei fell by 1.7%, while the broad-based Topix fell by 1.6%. The Japanese yen weakened by 0.3% against the U.S. dollar. Yen traders are closely watching equities as the risk-off sentiment grows.
South Korea’s Kospi fell by 1.35% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined by 0.88%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index lost 1.35%. The mainland Chinese CSI 300 also slipped marginally. Midea Group, a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer, announced a listing in Hong Kong.
On Friday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had their worst weeks since March 2023 and March 2022, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell.
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