Asian markets weaker on disappointing US GDP Q1, Japan and China out today

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Most of the major equity indexes in Asian entered the week in “red” as they closed Monday trading with losses: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (-0.22%) and South Korea’s Kospi (-0.12%) were down today, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average and Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite were closed today. Sentiment is weaker due to Friday’s US Q1 GDP, coming in at 2.5% instead of the 3% expected.

Futures for the German DAX 30 (+0.38%) and the French CAC 40 (+0.44%) are signaling a higher opening ahead the EMU confidence report and German CPI. Also, investors are cheering this weekend’s news of an Italian coalition government as PM Lette (PD) formed an alliance with Berlusconi’s PDL party (even though he is not assuming any senior ministerial positions, he remains popular and influential), while Grillo’s Five-Star party refused to join, as expected. Investors will also be pricing in expectations regarding the ECB meeting and the FOMC meeting this week.