BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed on Monday ahead of this week’s US economic update, which is expected to point to a slowdown in growth.
Shanghai and Hong Kong fell while Tokyo rose. Crude oil prices fell.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.1% on Friday, but ended the week with a small loss.
Thursday’s US data is expected to show economic growth weakening in the first quarter after rate hikes aimed at containing business activity and inflation. That could cause the Fed to postpone or scale back a possible rate hike at his May meeting.
France and Germany reported economic growth on Friday following a survey showing lower factory activity in Europe.
“There is no doubt that the global economy is weakening and could slow further,” Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities said in a note.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5% to 3,285.81 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 28,646.39. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 19,953.05.
Seoul’s Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,524.08, while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 fell 0.1% to 7,320.90. New Zealand rose and Singapore fell.
Forecasters expect Thursday’s data to show U.S. economic growth slowed to 2% in the first three months of 2023 from 2.6% in the final quarter of last year. .
Traders are watching to see if the Fed and other central banks can keep inflation from nearing multi-decade highs without sending the global economy into recession. The Fed is expected to raise key lending rates again at his May meeting and then take a break.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose to 4,133.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 33,808.96. The Nasdaq Composite was 12,072.46, up 0.1%.
Health-care companies and consumer goods makers rose, offsetting losses in banks, technology stocks and others. His two big regional banks, Truist Financial and KeyCorp, posted the biggest losses in the S&P 500. Truist fell 6% and KeyCorp closed down 3.7% of him.
Investors focused on company earnings and forecasts.
The company continues to beat Wall Street expectations. Analysts had predicted this would mark a sharp drop in earnings per share for the S&P 500 since the pandemic took the economy by surprise in 2020. Analysts surveyed by FactSet said earnings of companies in the S&P 500 were down. is expected to decline by 6.3%.
Coca-Cola will report results on Monday, followed by McDonald’s and Google parent company Alphabet on Tuesday.
Airplane maker Boeing and Facebook parent company Meta Platforms reported Wednesday. Investors can get more details on the health of the airline industry announced Thursday by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, along with Internet retail giant Amazon.
In the energy market, benchmark US crude fell 71 cents to $77.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 50 cents to $77.87 on Friday. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil trading, fell 71 cents to $80.75 a barrel in London. It gained 56 cents in the previous session to $81.66.
The dollar rose to 134.44 from 134.21 on Friday. The euro rose from $1.0977 to $1.0980.
