Asian shares were mostly lower Monday as investors cautiously eyed the summit of European leaders discussing the pandemic crisis and coronavirus cases continued to soar in the U.S.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% in early trading to 22,616.23. South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.5% to 2,190.45, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell nearly 0.7% to 5,993.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher to 25,101.57, while the Shanghai Composite gained 2.6% to 3,298.50.
"Asia markets are looking to a muted start to the week, caught between growing COVID-19 cases around the globe while looking to the series of earnings releases this week," said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore. Wall Street closed out its third straight winning week Friday, as hopes grew the economy can continue to steady itself despite a worsening of the pandemic and moves to close bars and some other venues to help curb rising infections.
Reports showed a strengthening in U.S. home building activity but also a weakening in consumer sentiment. They're the latest in a stream of data that has shown how uncertain the path is for the economy, as the continuing rise in coronavirus counts threatens to undo improvements that seemed to have taken root in the economy.
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