The Nikkei 225 is about to decline, and China’s PMI is waiting

Japan Nikki 225 Australian shares fell more than 4% on Monday, while Australian shares hit a new high ahead of the release of key economic data from China.

Japan saw August retail sales rise 2.8% year-on-year, beating a Reuters poll estimate of a 2.3% rise, and up from a revised 2.7% rise in July. The broad-based Topix saw a smaller loss of 3.13%.

Separately, China will release official PMI numbers for September, with economists polled by Reuters expecting the manufacturing PMI to reach 49.5, a smaller contraction compared to 49.1 in August.

The Caixin PMI Survey, a special survey compiled by S&P Global, will also be released on Monday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.56%, breaching an all-time high of 8,246.2.

South Korea Cosby rose 0.13% and small-cap Kosdaq shares rose marginally.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng futures stood at 20,910, lower than the HSI’s last close of 20,632.30.

Overnight in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a new high on Friday as traders took stock of new data that showed more progress in curbing inflation.

The 30-stock Dow Jones index rose 0.33%, closing at 42,313.00. The S&P 500 fell 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.39%.

This comes as traders weigh encouraging inflation data for August, which saw the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – rise 0.1%, in line with expectations of economists polled by Dow Jones.

The personal consumption expenditures index rose at an annual pace of 2.2%, lower than expectations of 2.3%.

— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Pia Singh contributed to this report.