Investing.com - Asian shares eased on Monday with markets in Tokyo closed and investors cautious after a failed military takeover in Turkey at the weekend raised political risk for the region.
The Shanghai Composite eased 0.55% despite a gain in house prices data for June in China of 7.3% year-on-year with the previous month up 6.9%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was last up 0.09%. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.52%.
The yuan fell against the dollar after the People's Bank of China weakened the fixing for the first time in four days at 6.6961, compared with 6.6805 on Friday.
Last week, U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday remaining in near-record territory, as a bevy of robust economic data in June offset subdued earnings from Wells Fargo (NYSE:NYSE:WFC) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:NYSE:C), while travel stocks weighed in response to the Nice truck attack.
Shares in Wells Fargo and Citigroup, two of the most prominent banks on Wall Street, closed lower in Friday's session after revenues moved lower in the second quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 10.14 or 0.05% to 18,516.55, closing at all-time record highs for the fourth consecutive session. The Dow reached session-highs of 18,557.43 late on Friday afternoon, also hitting a record-high for the fourth straight day. While the S&P 500 Composite index also set a fresh all-time intra-session high at 2,164.75, the S&P pared gains to close at 2,161.74, down 2.01 or 0.09%. Had the S&P 500 closed higher on Friday, the index would have posted all-time closing highs in five straight sessions over a single week, a feat last achieved in March, 1998.
On the S&P 500, six of 10 sectors closed in the green as stocks in the Utilities and Basic Materials industries led. Stocks in the Consumer Services sector lagged, falling more than 0.50% on the session despite the release of strong retail sales data on Friday. The NASDAQ Composite index also fell slightly on Friday, losing 4.49 or 0.09% to close at 5,029.59.