Stock market today: Asian stocks decline as China stimulus plan disappoints markets

Asian stocks fell on Monday, led by a more than 2% drop in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, as China's stimulus package disappointed investor expectations.

China on Friday approved a 6 trillion yuan ($839 billion) plan during a national legislature meeting. The long-anticipated stimulus is designed to help local governments refinance their mountains of debt in the latest push to rev up growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

“It’s not exactly the growth rocket many had hoped for. While it’s a substantial number, the stimulus is less about jump-starting economic growth and more about plugging holes in a struggling local government system,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Meanwhile, China’s inflation rate in October rose 0.3% year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday, marking a slowdown from September’s 0.4% increase and dropping to its lowest level in four months.

The Hang Seng fell 2.2% to 20,270.77, and the Shanghai Composite lost 0.4% to 3,437.90.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% in morning trading to 39,347.79. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.5% to 8,252.70. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% to 2,534.82.

U.S. futures were higher while oil prices declined.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,995.54, its biggest weekly gain since early November 2023 and briefly crossed above the 6,000 level for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 43,988.99, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.1% to 19,286.78.

In the bond market, longer-term Treasury yields eased.

A preliminary report in the morning suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers rose for a fourth straight month to its highest level in six months. The survey from the University of Michigan, which was conducted before Tuesday’s election, also said expectations for inflation in the coming year eased to the lowest level since 2020.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.30% Friday from 4.33% late Thursday. But it’s still well above where it was in mid-September, when it was close to 3.60%.

Treasury yields climbed in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates in order to keep the job market humming, now that it’s helped get inflation nearly down to its 2% target.

Some of the rise in yields has also been because of Trump. He talks up tariffs and other policies that economists say could drive inflation and the U.S. government’s debt higher, along with the economy’s growth.

Traders have already begun paring forecasts for how many cuts to rates the Fed will deliver next year because of that. While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also give inflation more fuel.

In other dealings Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 27 cents to $70.11 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 21 cents, to $73.66 per barrel.

The dollar rose to 153.36 Japanese yen from 152.62 yen. The euro edged up to $1.0725 from $1.0723.

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AP Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.