Asian stocks began the week with a mixed performance before a flurry of corporate earnings worldwide, while the dollar edged higher versus most peers and oil retreated.
About the same number of shares rose as fell on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index in early trading, with Australia's benchmark retreating and South Korea's advancing. Equity index futures foreshadowed gains in Singapore and Taiwan, and losses for Hong Kong, where markets were closed on Friday owing to a typhoon. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was near a seven-month high, while oil declined after Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, balked at joining efforts to trim output to prop up prices.
Three of the world's four biggest companies by market value, including Apple Inc., will release results this week in the U.S., while China has all four of its biggest listed banks reporting and updates are also due from more than 350 members of Japan's Topix stock index. Initial gauges of this month's manufacturing activity in the U.S., euro area and Japan are scheduled Monday and these may influence the monetary policy outlooks for those economies.
"Earnings is the key metric for investors," said Matthew Sherwood, head of investment strategy in Sydney at Perpetual Ltd., which manages about $21 billion. "Meanwhile, there are a number of important macro events which are holding the market back, including the U.S. election early next month and key Fed and ECB meetings in December.
Stocks
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was down less than 0.2 percent as of 9:24 a.m. Tokyo time, with finance stocks posting the biggest losses and healthcare shares advancing. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.9 percent, South Korea's Kospi index added 0.4 percent and the Topix was little changed. Financial markets in New Zealand and Thailand are shut Monday.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index gained 0.1 percent before American companies including Visa Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. report earnings on Monday. More than than 80 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have released third-quarter results so far beat expectations, though analysts still forecast a contraction in profits.
Currencies
The pound was the biggest loser among major currencies, retreating 0.2 percent versus the greenback. The U.S. currency has been appreciating of late amid speculation the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before the year is out. There's a 67 percent chance of a hike by its December meeting, futures show.
The euro was down less than 0.1 percent at $1.0880, near a seven-month low of $1.0859 reached Friday.
The yuan weakened less than 0.1 percent in offshore trading. China's leaders gather for their annual plenum in Beijing this week, pivotal to President Xi Jinping's efforts to consolidate power. Topping the agenda is institutionalizing his unprecedented anti-corruption campaign.
Commodities
Crude oil fell 0.4 percent to $50.66 a barrel in New York, after advancing 0.8 percent on Friday. Iraq's oil minister said Sunday that the nation should be exempted production cuts proposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because it's embroiled in a war with Islamic militants. The country produced more than 4.7 million barrels a day in September.
© 2016 Bloomberg L.P
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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