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DJ Asia Rally Stalls With Wall Street; Aussie Retreats On Business Survey -- Barron's Blog
09/08/2016 12:25PM AEST

By Shuli Ren
Asia markets are losing the bull spirit.
Asia's largest markets are little changed this morning, even as oil prices rose overnight. The S&P 500 failed to hold onto its record levels, down 0.1% on Monday.
The Nikkei 225 gained 0.1% despite stable yen, while the Hang Seng Index fell 0.1%. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index closed at 658.5 overnight, just shy of 661.2 seen a year ago, on August 11, 2015.
The Australian dollar retreated 0.3% to 0.7624 after National Australia Bank survey showed business conditions in Australia softened in July. The bank wrote:

Business conditions dropped back as well in July, to +8 index points (from +11), but this is still quite an elevated level that sits well above the long run average of +5. The contribution from major industries suggest a relatively mixed bag, with service sectors continuing to be the best performers. Signs of a broadening recovery in recent months have again become more obscure following sharp deteriorations in transport and wholesale -- although a recovery in retail conditions was encouraging. While trading conditions and profitability have been the main driver of elevated business conditions, both of these contributed to the deterioration during the month.

NAB expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut rates two more times, to a new low of 1% by next August.
The New Zealand dollar is little changed ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's rate decisions this week. Markets expect a rate cut.

More at Barron's Asia Stocks to Watch blog, http://blogs.barrons.com/asiastocks/


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