Asia-Pacific markets fell on Monday, as news emerged that U.S. President Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 pitched lower 464.79 points, or 1.2%, to 39,599.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 218.20 points, or 1.3%, to 17,635.88. The offshore Chinese yuan weakened 0.1% to trade at 7.2922 against the greenback.
Investors will also assess the impact of the massive global IT outage late last week. Machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system crashed Friday due to a glitch in an update issued by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, causing its shares to plunge by 11%.
Microsoft said in a blog post on the weekend it estimated that 8.5 million Windows devices — or less than 1% of all Windows machines — were affected.
This week, investors will be looking out for GDP data from South Korea and the U.S., as well as factory activity data from around the region.
South Korea and the the U.S will announce second-quarter advance GDP numbers on Thursday.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 dropped 24.10 points, or 0.7%, to 3,514.92.
On Monday, China’s central bank unexpectedly cut rates, with the short term 7-day reverse repurchase rate lowered to 1.7% from 1.8%.
The one-year and five-year loan prime rates were also trimmed by 10 basis points each to 3.35% and 3.85% respectively, surprising markets as economists were not expecting any change. The People’s Bank of China will also reduce collateral requirements for its medium-term lending facility from July. The current MLF rate stands at 2.5%.
A survey by Reuters last week showed that 64% of all respondents expected both the one-year and five-year LPR to stay unchanged.
The one-year LPR acts as the benchmark for most corporate loans, and the five-year LPR serves as a reference rate for mortgages.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index let go of 10.3 points, or 0.3%, to 3,437.26.
In Korea, the Kospi index subtracted 31.95 points, or 1.1%, to 2,763.51.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index plummeted 612.27 points, or 2.7%, to 22,256.99.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 withered 15.69 points, or 0.1%, to 12,309.91.
In Australia, the ASX 200 sank 39.85 points, or 0.5%, to 7,931.74.
