Asia-Pacific markets slip in early trade; SoftBank earnings ahead

SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific traded lower Monday, with SoftBank set to report earnings after the market close.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.23% while the Topix index slipped 0.29%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.16%.

South Korea's Kospi declined 0.34% and the Kosdaq shed 0.38%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.21%.

Over the weekend, China reported trade data for July that showed dollar-denominated exports grew 18% compared to a year ago.

That's the fastest pace of growth this year and beat analysts' expectations for a 15% increase, Reuters reported.

China's dollar-denominated imports increased 2.3% in July compared to the same period in 2021, lower than the expected 3.7% gain.

On Friday in the U.S., nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, far above expectations. Treasury yields rose strongly.

"Noise in the seasonal adjustment factor could feed into downward surprises in coming months, all else equal; but there's no question that the U.S. labor market is extremely tight," according to an ANZ Research note dated Monday.

"The payrolls data validated Fed speakers' efforts in the past week to correct the market's impression that Powell's 'data dependent' take is dovish," the note added.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.651 after a sharp jump following the payrolls data release.

The Japanese yen traded at 135.26 per dollar as the greenback strengthened. The Australian dollar was at $0.6903.

U.S. crude futures dipped 0.88% to $88.23 per barrel, while Brent crude slipped 0.85% to $94.11 per barrel.