Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Monday after weak US economic data and massive fall in oil prices stoked further worries about a global economic downturn. Besides, concerns about China’s slowing economy too fuelled the downtrend. US retail sales fell in December along with industrial production, the latest indication that economic growth braked sharply in the fourth quarter. Following those data, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's closely-watched GDPNow forecast model showed the US economy is on track to grow 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, slowing sharply from 2.0 percent growth in the third quarter. US companies' fourth-quarter profits are expected to decline more than four percent, which would be the second straight quarterly decline. Meanwhile, the Japan's Nikkei share average dived to a one-year low following a big sell-off in Wall Street on Friday, after oil prices tumbled and fears grew about economic trouble in China, sending all sectors into the red. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Shanghai, and Taiwan are higher.
Nikkei 225 declined 249.45 points or 1.45% to 16,897.66, Hang Seng contracted 216.01 points or 1.11% to 19,304.76, Straits Times dipped 45.18 points or 1.72% to 2,585.58, KOSPI Index decreased 2.26 points or 0.12% to 1,876.61, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 9.43 points or 0.58% to 1,619.12, and Jakarta Composite was down by 39.85 points or 0.88% to 4,484.13.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite added 2.36 points or 0.08% to 2,903.33, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 28.63 points or 0.37% to 7,790.64.