A vegetables stall in the Haizhu area of Guangzhou, China, in May 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly up on Monday as investors assessed November inflation numbers from China, which declined at a faster-than-expected pace .
The consumer price index fell 0.5% year-on-year, more than the 0.1% drop expected by economists polled by Reuters and the fastest slide since November 2020.
The producer price index fell 3% year-on-year, compared with October’s 2.6% drop and expectations of a 2.8% decline.
November also marked the 14th straight month of PPI decline and the quickest since August.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started Monday up 0.22%, on pace for a three-month high.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 popped 1.85% on its open, while the broad based Topix saw a smaller gain of 1.55%.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3% and the small cap Kosdaq was up 0.96%.
In contrast, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,327, pointing to a weaker open compared with HSI’s close of 16,334.37
On Friday, all three major U.S. indexes rose, with the S&P 500 climbing to hit a new high for the year after the November jobs report and University of Michigan consumer survey data signaled a resilient economy and cooling inflation, fueling hopes for a so-called soft-landing scenario.
The S&P 500 added 0.41%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained or 0.36%.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report