Broadly speaking, the global backdrop for Asian markets is still bright, with investors confident that the Fed will soon cut U.S. interest rates keeping the dollar, bond yields and volatility in check, and boosting risk assets.The economic "data dump" from Beijing on Friday showed that China's recovery is sputtering - investment growth slowed, retail sales expanded at the slowest pace since late 2022, and new home prices fell at the fastest rate in nine years.
It's unlikely, and Beijing may well default to ramping up exports as the preferred path to recovery. But that would not be welcomed by the United States, which last week imposed extra tariffs on $18 billion of imports from China. The Asian economic calendar on Monday offers a decent serving of indicators for investors to get their teeth into, including: GDP from Thailand, current account and trade data from Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan, and unemployment from Hong Kong.