Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday after China reported its factory output slowed in May, with the property market still deep in the doldrums.
US futures edged lower and oil prices fell.
Shares fell 1.9% in Tokyo to 38,070.40 and in Seoul, the Kospi declined 0.5% to 2,744.63. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.2% to 7,712.90.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 17,960.09, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.6% to 3,015.95.
Factory output fell 5.6% in China in May, the government reported, below analysts’ forecasts and slowing from 6.7% the month before. Retail sales rose just 4.1% in the first five months of the year.
Overshadowing those lackluster numbers, property investments fell 10% in May from a year earlier, while home prices in major cities fell 3.2%.
Property sales plunged 30.5% year-on-year, in further evidence that a raft of measures to try to turn around a slump in the property sector have yet to take hold.
Most markets in Southeast Asia were closed for holidays, while Thailand’s SET lost 1.2%.
On Friday, US stocks hung around their record levels, with the S&P 500 down less than 0.1%, to 5,431.60, the first time last week that it did not set an all-time high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1%, to 38,589.16, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1% to its record set a day before on the back of gains for technology stocks, closing at 17,688.88.
In Europe, stocks sank following elections that have raised uncertainty over the region’s future.
Wins by far-right parties have raised pressure on France’s president in particular, and investors worry it could weaken the European Union, stall fiscal plans and ultimately hurt France’s ability to pay its debt. Recent elections have also shaken markets in Mexico, India and elsewhere.
France’s CAC 40 fell 2.7% to bring its loss for the week to 6.2%, its worst in more than two years. Germany’s DAX lost 1.4%.
US stocks have set records as hopes rise that inflation is slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this year. Big technology stocks, meanwhile, continue to race ahead almost regardless of what the economy and interest rates are doing.
