Asian bourses began the week softened amid essential market closures, lack of fresh macro-drivers over the weekend. The Hang Seng index traded heavily under pressure amid a continuous crackdown by China, which ordered tech giants to unbundle their financial services to companies turning their mobile payment apps into financial supermarkets through loans insurance policies.
On Wall Street, US equities traded higher, led higher by the value sector; the Nasdaq-100 was lower. Participants have been haunted by whether a higher inflation period is coming this year; with that in mind, commodity prices keep going up. Meantime, the ISM manufacturing report was soft but did not drive a significant shift in trading dynamics in the session as investors continue to position around the reopening, earnings and the reflation theme trade. The slate will pick up on Tuesday as earnings reporting continues. Wednesday’s services ISM and Friday’s US jobs report are the main economic data points on the radar. According to a Reuters poll, the US Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) data is expected to show 988,000 new jobs were added in April; it is anticipated the Unemployment Rate to drop to 5.8%, the lowest level since the first US lockdowns in March last year. The pair labour data points are the most closely watched indicators of the strength of the US economy reopening; that could accelerate the equity market positioning to value names and sectors, supporting the Russell 2000, Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes and its constituents.
