Asian shares on edge ahead of China's economic data

On Monday morning, Asian shares were on edge ahead of the release of U.S economic data for the third quarter as investors fret about the health of China's second largest economy even as U.S companies report strong quarterly earnings.

The US oil prices hit new multi-year highs, continuing their recent surge amid a global energy shortage, with Brent at a triple-year high and Brent at a new seven-year high.

While bitcoin was within sight of its all-time high, sitting at $62,500 and not far from April's record of $64,895, gained last week in hopes that US regulators would allow a futures exchange market ETF MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little altered in early trading on Monday, off 0.07 percent, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.12 percent. US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.13 percent.

Stocks globally ended last week in a bullish mood, posting their best day in five months on Friday as strong US corporate earnings reported fueled optimism about the economy although firm oil prices kept inflation risks alive and lifted government bond yields.

The Chinese data dump is likely to show that GDP grew 5.2 percent from an earlier pace in July-September, the weakest pace since the third quarter of 2020, according to the median forecasts of 56 economists polled by Reuters.

Barclays analysts said in a note that they expected GDP to slow in view of repeated weakness in consumption and services amid persistent COVID outbreaks and the fading of the low year-earlier base. Investors also pointed to supply bottlenecks, power shortages and rising jitters over the property sector as the saga over the fate of the beleaguered property developer China Evergrande Group rumbles on.

Yi Gang, the governor of China's central bank said on Sunday that China's economy was doing well but faced challenges such as default risks for certain firms due to mismanagement Elsewhere, investors are continuing to position themselves for the US Federal Reserve to start tapering its massive asset purchases this year.

The yield for benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 1.5904 percent on Monday, heading back towards the four-month high of 1.6310 percent before a wobble later in the week.

Analysts at CBA reported that they expect US rates to climb further as inflation pressure builds, supporting the US dollar which has further upside on our view The pound could gain on the dollar this week as UK economic and inflation dynamics support the upward shift to the UK interest rates while the Chinese yuan was traded off-shore by Chinese GDP data, they added.

In early trading on Monday, most currencies were quiet. The greenback was little changed against a basket its peers hit on Wednesday night at 93.992, off its one-year high of 94.563, while the yen hovered near its almost three-year low against the dollar.

Brent crude was last up 0.92 percent on $83.04 a barrel, while US crude was last upwards of 0.57 percent on $85.35 a barrel.

The gold was last up 0.14 percent - $1,769. It stood at 1.14 percent. 60 an ounce, after falling 2.5 percent on Friday due to rising US bond yields and a rise in US retail sales.