View of the central business district skyline at sunset in Beijing, China.
Sheng Peng | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Monday as China’s GDP data missed expectations, while investors also assessed the impact of an assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump at a rally over the weekend.
David Roche, president of Quantum Strategy, said in a note on Sunday that Trump would win the presidency, with an increased probability of a Republican clean sweep of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
On Monday, China’s statistics bureau announced that its economy grew 4.7% in the second quarter, missing expectations of a 5.1% expansion forecast by a Reuters poll and lower than the 5.3% rise seen in the first quarter.
China’s retail sales for June also came in lower than expected, growing 2% year on year, compared with expectations of 3.3% from economists polled by Reuters. Sales rose 3.7% in May.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plunged 1.12%, led by consumer non-cyclical and real estate stocks, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was lower by 0.15% after the economic data came in worse than expected..
Separately, China’s top leaders will gather this week for a highly anticipated meeting known as the Third Plenum, with analysts expecting the gathering to focus on areas such as high local government debt levels and a push for advanced manufacturing, instead of the country’s real estate sector.
Japan’s markets are closed for a public holiday.
South Korea’s Kospi and the small-cap Kosdaq were close to the flatline.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 extended gain to a third straight day, up 0.79%, hitting a fresh all-time high. The index was the only major Asian benchmark in positive territory.
U.S. market futures were marginally up late Sunday night, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher by 0.11%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq saw gains of about 0.1%.
—CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.
