Asia-Pacific markets poised for mixed open as investors await China loan prime rate announcement

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open mixed Monday as traders awaited China’s loan prime rate announcement, while also awaiting Japan’s general election at the end of this week.

China’s central bank is expected to cut the one-year and five-year LPRs by 20 basis points, according to a note by ING and echoing the statement made by People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng on Friday.

ING also noted that the PBOC is likely to release its rate decision for the medium term lending facility on Friday, although it is expected to be left unchanged at 2% after being reduced by 30 basis points last month.

“Data aside, it is worth monitoring if there are potential further government ministry briefings or a potential announcement of the timing for the National People’s Congress meeting in the week ahead, as stimulus rollout remains a major theme for markets,” ING said.

Other key economic data this week will include October inflation figures for Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, as well as advance third-quarter GDP figures from South Korea.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to rise, with its futures contract in Chicago at 39,185 and its counterpart in Osaka both at 39,040 against the index’s last close of 38,981.75.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 20,782, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 20,804.11.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.71%

In the U.S., both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to record highs Friday, sealing six straight weeks of gains.

The broad market benchmark advanced 0.40% to close at 5,864.67, while the blue-chip Dow gained 36.86 points, or 0.09%, to end at 43,275.91.

The Nasdaq Composite, led by a postearnings jump in Netflix, ended the day up 0.63% at 18,489.55.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.