“China’s growth recovery and north Asia’s earnings rebound in 2024 remain our key investment themes and overweight areas,” Goldman Sachs’ strategists, led by Timothy Moe, wrote in a Saturday note.
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Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Monday, as investors assess China’s weekend press briefing and await a slew of economic data this week.
China’s Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an in a highly anticipated press briefing on Saturday hinted at more debt issuance amid efforts to shore up the economy, stating the government had a “rather large” space to increase deficit.
Meanwhile, China’s deflation pressures deepened in September with consumer prices rising at their slowest pace in three months at 0.4% from a year earlier, while the producer price index fell at the fastest pace in six months, down 2.8%. Both metrics missed expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who estimated CPI to rise 0.6% and PPI to decline 2.5%.
China is set to release its trade data for September on Monday, with exports expected to rise 6%, a slower growth than 8.7% in August, while imports are estimated to grow 0.9%, compared to 0.5% in August.
China watchers also look ahead to the week with a busy set of economic data, including China’s third-quarter GDP, September industrial output growth, retail sales and unemployment rate.
Japan’s market was closed for a holiday.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 21,274, slightly higher than its previous close at 21,251.98.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.27%.
Stateside, stock futures were little changed in overnight trading Sunday as investors waited to assess an upcoming batch of key corporate earnings.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near the flatline. The S&P 500 index futures were flat, while Nasdaq-100 futures dipped 0.1%.
— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.
