Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Monday with data sets in Sydney and Tokyo taking a back seat as caution came into play ahead of a Federal Reserve review of rates this week and the ongoing turmoil of the U.S. presidential election.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.74%, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.30%.
Japan reported provisional industrial production data for October as unchanged from the previous month in September, better than the 1.5% fall seen, and after a 1.3% gain in August. As well, retail sales for September fell 1.9% year-on-year as largely expected, marking the seventh straight drop after a 2.2% fall in August.
Australia reported housing credit for September rose 0.5%, unchanged from the previous month, and private sector credit gained 0.4% month-on-month as expected. Investor housing credit is slowing because of a switch in mortgages from investor housing to owner-occupiers, which has occurred since mid-2015. So far, A$45 billion worth of mortgages has switched from the investor to the owner-occupier category. Of this, A$1.0 billion worth of mortgage switching occurred in September, the RBA said.
China stocks edged lower to unchanged with the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.47% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index flat. The yuan rose against the dollar after the central bank strengthened the fixing at 6.7641.
Candidate Hillary Clinton is on the back foot after the FBI last week said it would review more emails related to Hillary Clinton's private email use, sparking speculation Republican candidate Donald Trump could pull off an upset in a race that had previously seen the Democrat ahead in most polls with momentum building for the party to make gains in Congress.
Last week, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.05%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.31%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.50%.