Asia stocks started the last quarter of the year on the backfoot following the weak handover from Wall Street, where all major indices sank to close off the worst month and quarter in the S&P 500 since the start of the pandemic. Thin liquidity will dominate for the session ahead as China’s participants enter a week-long holiday, and Hong Kong will return on Monday.
On the trade front, reports noted that the U.S. trade chief reportedly outlines President Joe Biden’s strategy on China on Monday. Participants could now start building new portfolio positions for the year-end, ahead of major Monetary Policy shifts from G7 Central Banks as Emerging Markets economies start showing early signals of stagflation. On the radar for the day will be the final manufacturing PMI readings from across the globe, with the latest release of the U.S. Institute for Supply Management manufacturing survey and U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures data in the U.S. session.
