By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up on Monday morning, even as the latest U.S. jobs report disappointed, the global energy crunch continues and central banks prepare to begin asset tapering.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.55% by 10:07 PM ET (2:07 AM GMT) and in Australia, the ASX 200 was down 0.52%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.55%.
China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.35% and the Shenzhen Component was up 0.26%, with trade and inflation data due later in the week.
South Korean markets were closed for a holiday, and the Bank of Korea will hand down its policy decision on Tuesday.
U.S. shares were on a downward trend after the latest U.S. jobs report disappointed investors. Non-farm payrolls were at 194,000, while the unemployment rate was 4.8%, in September. Despite the figures, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to begin asset tapering soon and investors will be looking to Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic’s speech on Tuesday for clues.
The Fed will also release the minutes from its latest meeting a day later, with the core consumer price index (CPI) due on the same day.
Across the Atlantic, the Bank of England also reinforced signs that it could hike interest rates soon to curb inflation.
Alongside asset tapering from central banks globally, investors also await upcoming third-quarter company profits and also the next moves in China’s property sector.
“We do have this environment where we have expectations for inflation rising and expectations for growth falling but I don’t think we are going to be in an environment where we see stagflation becoming entrenched,” J.P.Morgan Asset Management global market strategist Kerry Craig told Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) economists cut their forecasts for U.S. growth in both 2021 and 2022, citing a slower-than-expected recovery in consumer spending. However, these cuts were mostly offset by upgrades to projections for the following two years.
Meanwhile, declining China-Taiwan relations are also on investors’ radars. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen on Sunday said the island will defend its sovereignty, while Chinese President Xi Jinping declared just a day earlier that unification will be achieved.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will also hold their annual meetings through Oct. 17.