\t\t\tStock markets got off to a cautious start in Asia on Monday as investors braced for a possible shutdown of the US government, which would in turn delay publication of the September payrolls report and a raft of other key data.<\/p>\n
In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index climbed 193 points, or 0.74 percent, to open the week at 26,321.<\/p>\n
Mainland stocks opened mixed, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index flat at 3,828 and the Shenzhen Component Index 0.3 percent higher at 13,248.<\/p>\n
The ChiNext Index, tracking China’s Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, was up 0.43 percent at 3,165.<\/p>\n
Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.7 percent, having risen 6 percent for September so far, while South Korea bounced 1.2 percent, bringing its gains for the month to 6.3 percent.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump will meet with the top Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress later on Monday to discuss extending government funding. Without a deal a shutdown would begin from Wednesday, which is also when new US tariffs on heavy trucks, pharmaceuticals and other items go into effect.<\/p>\n
A protracted closure could leave the Federal Reserve flying blind on the economy when it meets on October 29.<\/p>\n
“If the shutdown lasts beyond the Fed meeting, the Fed will rely on private data for its policy decisions,” analysts at BofA wrote in a note. “On the margin, we think this may lower the likelihood of an October cut, but only marginally.”<\/p>\n
Markets imply a 90 percent chance of a Fed cut in October, with around a 65 percent probability of another in December.<\/p>\n
The BofA analysts estimated a shutdown would subtract only a slight 0.1 percentage point from economic growth for every week it lasted, while noting the impact on financial markets had been minimal in the past.<\/p>\n
They cautioned that should the government use the closure to lay off workers permanently, then it could have a more meaningful impact on payrolls and consumer confidence.<\/p>\n
There is also much uncertainty about what might happen at a meeting of US generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, called by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth which Trump will reportedly attend.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, analysts expected equities to be supported by buying for the new quarter which historically tends to be a positive one for stocks. The S&P 500 has gained 74 of the time in the fourth quarters. (Reuters\/Xinhua)\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stock markets got off to a cautious start in Asia on Monday as investors braced for a possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,220,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-49319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-markets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}