Bitcoin is not far off all-time high.
HONG KONG, Nov. 18 : Reuters - The Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stock market fell on Monday after data showed China's economy grew more slowly than expected in the third quarter, clouding global recovery outlook and weighing on regional stocks.
Analysts said comments by Xi Jinping on Friday, which called for progress on a long-awaited property tax, also hurt sentiment, already weighed down by rising oil prices.
Oil prices extended a recent rally amid a global energy shortage to hit multiple peaks, with U.S. crude touching a seven-year high and Brent going a three-year high.
China's gross domestic product grew 4.9% in July-September from a year earlier, the weakest pace since the third quarter of 2020, as the world's second largest economy grappled with power shortages, supply bottlenecks, sporadic COVID 18 outbreaks and debt problems in its property sector.
The Chinese blue chips were down 1.55% and the Hong Kong benchmark 0.54%, although most of the falls came right after the bell, prior to the release of the data.
The numbers do actually not materialize as we thought they were. I think the fourth quarter will be even slower because we will see more impact from energy crunch, said Woei Chen Ho, economist at UOB.
But David Chao, global market strategist for the Asia-Pacific region of Invesco, said that Xi's comments about higher taxes had been the catalyst for the stock fall, looking at grounds for optimism in the GDP data, including stronger retail sales.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last down 0.34%, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.15%.
U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, traded 0.3%, while pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures lost 0.4% and FTSE futures dropped 0.35%
Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP, said investors also continued to worry about global inflation, which was being driven by the reopening of many economies after COVID -19 restrictions and supply chain issues.
On Monday, data showed the New Zealand's Consumer Price Index - a rise of 2.2% in the third quarter, the biggest increase in over a decade, caused local dollar to jump as much as 0.5%.
Some foreign currencies are also responding to rising inflation expectations, as investors increasingly bet central banks will have to raise rates.
The dollar edged higher against a basket of its peers to 94.11, in sight of its one-year high of 94.563 hit Monday last week as traders position themselves for a looming demonetization of Federal Reserve's massive bond buying programme.
The rupee fell against a stronger dollar and British currency appreciated 0.2% despite the overwaste of comments from the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey over the weekend.
The yen hovered between its lowest against the dollar since nearly three years, as the Japanese central bank looked increasingly likely to trail behind other monetary authorities in terms of rate hikes.
High cost is driving inflation fears and U.S. crude was last up 1.6% at $83.59 a barrel, while Brent crude was last 1.19% higher at $85.87 per barrel.
Gold gained 0.01% at $1,768 to become the second largest in the world. 7 an ounce, after falling 1.5% on Friday as upbeat retail sales drove U.S. bond yields higher?
Bitcoin traded at $62,300, not far from a record of $64,895 hit in April. It gained a stake last week on hopes that U.S. regulators will permit a cryptocurrency exchange traded fund to trade.