The major Asia-Pacific equity benchmarks.....>

STOCKS: The major Asia-Pacific equity benchmarks trade mixed. Chinese equities

shrugged off the latest round of domestic PMI data, which saw all of the

headline readings miss exp., although the metrics remained in expansionary

territory. Investors were perhaps hopeful that the modest pullback (which comes

after LNY effects & credit fuelling likely boosted the previous round of data)

would be temporary, or could result in elongated stimulus, after a move towards

a policy of targeted stimulus. It is also worth highlighting that Chinese

markets will be closed Wednesday through Friday, owing to national holidays. The

ASX 200 struggled, with the heavyweight materials and energy sectors providing

the most weight. A soft round of earnings from Korean giant Samsung Electronics

also weighed on sentiment. Hang Seng -0.5%, CSI 300 +0.5%, ASX 200 -0.6%.

- The soft Chinese data provided some modest weight to U.S. equity index

futures, which were already assessing disappointing earnings from Alphabet

after-market on Monday. This comes after the S&P 500 managed to set all-time

closing and intraday highs in the first trading session of the week. S&P 500

futures -3 points, DJIA futures -8 points, NASDAQ 100 futures -20 points.