Stocks mostly lower after U.S. jobs report

South Korea’s Kospi was slightly lower and the Kosdaq shed 0.31%.

Chipmaker SK Hynix slipped 2.74% on Monday after the Korea Herald reported that a South Korean city, Yeoju, wants more compensation in exchange for letting the company build pipes to transport huge amounts of water to its plant in a different city.

Mainland China markets were mildly positive. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.19% and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.15%.

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.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.59%.

On Friday in the U.S., nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, far above expectations. Treasury yields rose strongly as traders adjusted their forecasts for Fed rates higher.

“Binary risks between policy-induced recession and run-away inflation continues to grow; imposing much higher dangers of policy miscalculations,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Monday note.