South Korea stocks lead losses in Asia-Pacific ahead of key data from China
Aerial view of vehicles being driven on the road through the central business district in Beijing, China.
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Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday, after Wall Street declined Friday stateside as investors took a breather from the AI trade.
“[Friday] is a value-outperforms-growth day,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. “Investors are definitely skittish as it relates to AI — not outright pessimistic, but just kind of, I think, cautious and nervous and hesitant.”
Traders in Asia will also look toward key data from China, which will release its retail sales, fixed asset investment and industrial output numbers for November.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.16% while the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.17% lower. Index heavyweights memory chipmaker SK Hynix was down over 4%, while Samsung Electronics declined 3.3%.
Japan announced its fourth-quarter Tankan numbers. The index for business optimism among large Japanese manufacturers increased to +15 for the fourth quarter, hitting the highest level in four years.
The latest reading compared to the +14 increase in the previous quarter, and matched expectations of economists polled by Reuters. The non-manufacturing index for the fourth quarter came in at +34.
The Tankan survey, conducted by the Bank of Japan, measures business sentiment among companies in the world’s fourth largest economy.
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