Drone point view of the Shanghai skyline at sunrise.
Aerialperspective Images | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed on Monday as investors awaited key economic data from the U.S. and China later this week, while election results in France overnight signaled a hung parliament.
France’s left-wing New Popular Front coalition on Sunday unexpectedly thwarted a far-right advance, clinching the largest number of seats but falling short of an absolute majority in a parliamentary run-off vote.
Investors await the U.S. consumer price index reading, due Thursday stateside, to assess the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path, while China’s inflation figures on Wednesday will signal the state of the country’s economic recovery.
Central bank decisions from South Korea, New Zealand and Malaysia will also be announced this week, although no changes are expected, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down marginally, while the broad-based Topix was 0.17% lower. The losses come as Japan’s real wages fell for a 26th straight month.
In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi was 0.21% higher and the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.42%. Shares of heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 1.49%, despite the company’s largest union slated to begin a three day strike on Monday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1%, on pace for a second straight day of losses.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,687, lower than the HSI’s last close of 17,799.61.
On Friday in the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to new highs, with both indexes posting a record close as the latest jobs report reignited hopes for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
The broad market index advanced 0.54%, closing at 5,567.19, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.90% to end at 18,352.76.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.17%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report.