Asian markets are mixed at the start of the trading week as investors weighed good economic news from China against the rising numbers of new coronavirus cases.
The Nikkei index in Tokyo finished Monday’s trading session with a 2.2% gain. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is down 0.7% in late afternoon trading, while Shanghai’s Composite index is up 1.4% after a private survey showed Chinese manufacturing activity rose in July.
Elsewhere in Asia, Sydney’s S&P/ASX lost two points, but was essentially unchanged percentage-wise. Seoul’s KOSPI index gained two points, but was also essentially flat. Taipei’s TSEC index dropped 1.2%, while Mumbai’s Sensex was down one percent in late afternoon trading.
In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,994.20 an ounce, up 0.4% U.S. crude oil is trading at $39.92 per barrel, down 0.8%, and Brent crude, the international standard, is basically unchanged at $43.29 per barrel.
In futures trading, the S&P 500 and the Dow are trending negatively, while the Nasdaq is trending positively.