MOF press conference; China CPI, PPI; China trade data

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Monday as investors assessed the weekend news conference in China and awaited a range of economic data from the region this week.

The CSI 300 in mainland China gave up early gains to trade down 0.3% in choppy trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2.3%.

The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index gained about 2%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 4.5%.

China’s Finance Minister Lan Fo’an hinted at a much-anticipated news conference on Saturday that more debt would be issued as part of efforts to support the economy, saying the government had “fairly large” scope to increase the deficit.

Deflationary pressures in China intensified in September. Consumer prices rose at the slowest rate in three months, at 0.4% year-on-year, while the producer price index fell at the fastest rate in six months, falling 2.8%. Both metrics fell short of expectations from economists polled by Reuters, who estimated a 0.6% rise in CPI and a 2.5% decline in PPI.

China is expected to release its September trade data on Monday. Exports are expected to rise 6%, slower growth than 8.7% in August, while imports are expected to grow 0.9%, compared with 0.5% in August.

China watchers are also looking ahead to the week with a busy slate of economic data, including China’s third-quarter GDP, September industrial production growth, retail sales and the unemployment rate.

The Japanese market was closed for a holiday.

Australia S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4%.

South Korean blue-chip Kospi gained 0.63%, while the small-cap index Kosdaq fell 0.6%.

In the U.S., stock futures were little changed in overnight trading on Sunday as investors waited to assess key corporate earnings ahead.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near the flatline. S&P 500 index futures were flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%.

—CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.