Asian markets mixed: Japan skids; China helped by rate cut

 Markets were mixed in Asia on Monday, with Japan's benchmark slipping 0.8% after government reported ecomy contracted 6.3% in annual terms in last quarter.

China's shares got a boost after central bank stepped in to help ecomy with a rate cut, extra buying of securities and tax cuts.

Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was at 23,507.63 by late morning, while Sydney's S&P ASX/200 edged 1% lower to 7,120.00. South Korea's Kospi was flat, at 2,242.50, while Hang Seng in Hong Kong climbed 0.5% to 27,953.73.

Shanghai Composite index jumped 1.3% to 2,955.07 after central bank and finance minister anunced a slew of measures to support ecomy as country battles an outbreak of a new virus that has killed 1,770 people and infected nearly 70,000.

Shares fell in Taiwan and were flat in Bangkok and Jakarta.

contraction in Japanese ecomy, world's third-largest, reflected impact of typhoons, trade tensions and crimped consumer spending. seasonally adjusted ecomic data was anunced as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces pressure over spreading cases of new viral illness COVID-19 and markets around region see a mounting toll from its impact on travel and tourism as authorities strive to contain it.

“Consumer spending, which slumped following tax hike in fourth quarter of 2019, will w struggle to do anything except contract furr in first quarter as impact of Covid-19 weighs on consumer sentiment, weighing in particular on consumer services sector," ING said in a report.

“Some furr government spending may help to curb any furr contraction in GDP beyond 1Q20. But that will t stop what started off as a technical downturn from evolving into a full-blown recession," it said.

Thailand and Singapore also reported weak growth in last quarter of 2019, in figures that like Japan's do t yet reflect consequences of coronavirus outbreak.

But good news came in form of fresh help from People's Bank of China, which cut its one-year medium-term lending rate to 3.15% from 3.25%. central bank also injected some 200 billion yuan ($28.6 billion) and conducted 100 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in reverse repos, in effect putting more cash into market through short-term purchases of securities.

Such moves will likely be followed by still more, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, given that many of companies worst affected by virus outbreak are smaller ones that lack access to loans from major state-run banks.

“We think PBOC will need to expand its re-lending quotas and relax constraints on shadow banking in order to direct more credit to struggling SMEs,” Evans-Pritchard said in a commentary.

Wall Street closed out a wobbly day of trading Friday with major stock indexes tching ir second straight weekly gain. Though trading was mostly subdued and cautious following China's report Thursday of a surge in cases of a new virus that raised fresh concerns about global ecomic growth.

S&P 500 index rose 0.2% to 3,380.16. Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%, to 9,731.18. Both indexes were lower for most of afteron. Dow dropped 0.1%, to 29,398.08. Russell 2000 index slid 0.4%, to 1,687.58.

Techlogy companies led gainers Friday. Chipmaker Nvidia was a standout, jumping 7% after it handily beat analysts’ profit forecasts for fourth quarter.

real estate and utilities sectors also held up well as government bond yields fell, making companies that pay higher dividends more attractive. Digital Realty Trust climbed 3.9% and American Water Works rose 1.7%.

Bond prices rose. yield on 10-year Treasury was at 1.59% from 1.58% late Friday.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 5 cents to $52.00 per barrel in electronic trading on New York Mercantile Exchange. It closed 1.2% higher on Friday, tching its first weekly gain in six weeks. Brent crude oil, international standard, lost 15 cents to $57.17 a barrel.

slide in oil prices has weighed on energy stocks. sector is biggest loser in S&P 500, down 10.2% so far this year.

More than three quarters of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings and results so far show solid growth. Companies are expected to report overall profit growth of just under 1% when all reports are in, according to estimates from FactSet.

Several big companies are on deck to report results next week. Walmart will release its report on Tuesday and Deere will report on Friday.

On Wednesday, government will issue its report on producer prices, which measures inflation pressures before y reach consumers and re will be updates on health of housing industry. Federal Reserve will release minutes from its January meeting.

In or commodities trading, gold lost 70 cents to $1,585.70 per ounce, silver rose 10 cents to $17.83 per ounce and copper fell 1 cent to $2.61 per pound.

dollar rose to 109.81 Japanese yen from 109.77 yen on Friday. euro weakened to $1.0833 from $1.0839.