Asia stocks were mostly lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei snapping a six-day winning streak, while Hong Kong closed positive on the last trading day of May.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 49.34 points, or 0.3%, to end the day, week and month at 14,632.38. The yen strengthened versus the U.S. dollar, rising to ¥101.643 from ¥101.734 in the previous session. On the same day, data showed that Japan’s household spending for April dropped 4.6% from a year ago, adjusted for price changes.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong regained 71.51 points, or 0.3%, to 23,081.65. For the month of May, the index notched a 4.3% gain.
In Japan, market movers included semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics Corp., losing 2.8%, local peer Fujitsu, falling 1.9%, top investment bank Nomura Holdings, down 1.6%, and industrial robot maker Fanuc Corp., off 0.9%.
In Hong Kong, local developers helped lift the market, with top gainers including New World Development, climbing 2%, Cheung Kong (Holdings), rising 1.1%, and Hang Lung Properties, up 1%. Macau casino operators were also well bid, as Galaxy Entertainment Group rallied 4.7%, SJM Holdings jumped 3%, and MGM China Holdings traded up 2.5%.
The rush of Japanese economic data for April is out, and while consumer spending and industrial production were a bit of disappointing, the results weren’t too far from what economists were expecting.
Perhaps the most important were the inflation figures: Japan’s core consumer price index (which excludes volatile fresh-food prices) rose 3.4%, well ahead of March’s 1.3% gain and above the 3.1% median forecast in a Wall Street Journal survey of economists.
And then there was the core CPI result for metropolitan Tokyo in the current month to date, watched as a leading indicator for the nation as a whole. This was up 2.8% for a year earlier, just below the 2.9% gain tipped in the Wall Street Journal survey but accelerating from a 2.7% increase in the previous month.
But it that was a bullish note in the data, then consumer spending was the bearish reply: Spending by households of two of more people dropped a price-adjusted 4.6% from a year earlier, swinging from a 7.2% jump in March.
This, of course, was due to consumers front-loading their purchases to beat the April 1 hike in the consumption tax, but all the same, it was worse than the forecast 3.3% drop.
On a similar note, industrial output fell 2.5% last month, trailing a forecast 2% drop in a Wall Street Journal survey of economists, and even farther behind a projected 1.4% retreat as tipped in the government’s survey of manufacturers last month. In March, production had risen 0.7%.
Large passenger cars led the decline, with the overall drop likely linked to the April 1 consumption-tax hike.
Perhaps more important were the manufacturers’ own predictions for the month ahead, as inaccurate as they sometimes are: For May, they see industrial output up 1.7%, but for June, they forecast a 2% drop.
Rounding out the statistical parade, the unemployment rate was unchanged for a third month in a row at 3.6%.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Composite inched up 1.30 points, or 0.1%, to 2,156.46
Taiwan’s Taiex Index slipped 33.09 points, or 0.4%, to 9,075.91
Singapore’s Straits Times Index ducked back 4.86 points, or 0.2%, to 3,295.85
Korea’s Kospi index dropped 17.30 points, or 0.9%, to 1,994.96
New Zealand NZX 50 index gave back 4.73 points, or 0.1%, to 5,178.44
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 26.93 points, or 0.5%, to 5,492.55
