Investing.com - Asian shares fell on Monday as investors took a cue from Wall Street last week and noted a light week ahead in the U.S. market with a major holiday on Thursday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 eased 0.56%. Toshiba said it would raise ¥600 billion ($5.3 billion) from a sale of new shares, according to Reuters.
The company needs to raise ¥750 billion by the end of March to plug the hole in its balance sheet following the bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear power business or it will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Reuters reported. Toshiba shares were down 4.45% in late morning trade.
Earlier, Japan reported its trade balance for October came in a a surplus of with a surplus of ¥25 billion, narrower than the ¥33 billion seen and imports rose 18.9%, compared with a 20.2% gain seen and exports rose 14.8%, missing the up 15.8% gain expected. Later on Monday, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is to testify on the economy and monetary policy in the European Parliament in Brussels.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.95% and the Hang Seng index eased 0.16%.
This week, investors will be focused on Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting minutes for fresh clues on the likely trajectory of monetary policy. U.S. data on durable goods orders will be the highlight of the holiday-shortened week. Markets stateside will remain closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Last week, U.S. stocks fell on Friday as worries about tax reform lingered on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 2%. The S&P 500 finished 0.2% lower at 2,578.85, with utilities and information technology as the worst-performing sectors. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1% to 6,782.79 as shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) declined. A 1% gain in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) helped offset some of the losses. The index, however, still managed to close higher for the week.