Global equities maintained their bullish pattern at the close of last week with US stocks recording their best performance in 5 months.
However, the start of the trading session earlier this week saw a large number of indices both in the West and the East moving slightly weaker on the back of a weaker dollar and Treasury yields.
At the close of US stocks last Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial gained 0.1% at 33,747.9 while the S&P 500 gained 0.9% at 3,992.9 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.9% at 11,323.3.
However, Wall Street was relatively quiet this morning with Dow Jones futures and the S&P 500 down 0.2% while the Nasdaq was down 0.3%.
In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% while the Topix fell while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.13%, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.28%, Kosdaq gained 0.13% and the MSCI Asia Pacific index of shares outside Japan jumped 0.25%.
Meanwhile, weak US inflation data last week sent Treasury yields down 33 points and the dollar lost nearly 4%, the greenback's biggest weekly decline in 50 years.
The dollar strengthened slightly early this morning at 0.4% at 106.870 but still below the peak of 111.280 after last week's fall.
On the other hand, among the focus inputs this week that investors may need to be aware of are producer price index data, import and export data and US retail sales data.
In addition, the focus is also expected to be directed to China with the regulator asking financial institutions to extend support to property developers despite the resurgence of the Covid-19 situation.
