Asian stocks open week with mixed performance

Asian stocks waffled between negative and positive on the first session of the week, with the Chinese, New Zealand's stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index falling, while the Japanese stock indices, South Korean Kospi and the Australian stocks rose, as markets are pricing the latest economic data released by major Asian economies.

The Customs General Administration of China (CGAC) revealed its reading for the trade balance index, which showed the surplus has contracted to 274 billion yuan ($38.7 billion) vs. 301 billion yuan ($42.8 billion) in October, lower than forecasts of a surplus of 300 billion yuan  ($44.5 billion), despite exports declining and imports rising during last month.

The decline in Chinese exports for the fourth straight month in November falling by 1.1% compared to last year, is due to China's exports to the US falling by 23%, which reflects the impact of the ongoing trade war on trade volume between the two countries.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Friday, that the US and China trade deal is close, but the Trump administration is ready to end these talks if the deal is no good for Washington, adding that the US is ready to increase the tariffs on Chinese goods as scheduled on December 15, in case a trade agreement isn't reach, which is a tool used by the US within their talks to push China to increase its purchases of US farm goods.

The markets are cautiously anticipating the date for the US planned tariffs hike by 15% on Chinese goods worth $160 billion is due December 15, while President Donald Trump said last week that a trade agreement with China might have to wait until after the presidential election in 2020, and his administration will see what happens in the coming period.

Otherwise, the Japanese economy revealed its seasonally adjusted reading of the GDP, which showed an acceleration in growth to 0.4% vs. 0.1% in the preliminary reading for Q3 and higher than 0.3% in Q2, while the annual reading of the GDP measured by prices, showed stability at 0.6%, in line with forecasts vs. 0.4% in last reading.

The Japanese current account reading, showed the surplus expanded to 1,817 billion yen vs. 1.613 billion yen last September, higher than forecasts of a surplus to 1,807 billion yen, while the seasonally adjusted reading of the same index showed surplus of 1.732 billion yen vs. 1.485 billion yen in September, also higher than forecasts of 1.731 billion yen.

The New Zealand economy revealed its reading for the manufacturing sales index, which rose by 0.9% in Q3 vs. a drop by 0.7% in Q2, while the seasonally adjusted reading of the same index showed the contraction narrowed to 0.3% vs. 2.7% in Q2, which came ahead of Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe’s speech at the AusPayNet Summit, in Sydney.

As for trading, Japanese stock indices were higher during today's session, with the Topix index rising by 0.30% or 5.16 points to 1,718.52, and Nikkei 225 index rose by 0.27% or 62.75 points to 23,417.15.

While the Chinese stocks fell, as the CSI 300 index fell by 0.15% or 5.71 points to 3,896.68, and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.06% or 1.61 points to 2,910.40.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.05% or 13.32 points to 26,485.05. while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.43% or 8.93 points to 2,090.78.

To New Zealand's NZX 50, which fell by 0.27% or 30.91 points to 11,245.29, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index rose by 0.27% or 17.79 points to 6,724.80.