Asian stock markets rise

Asia-Pacific stocks rose early Monday as investors priced in the latest U.S. jobs report and awaited midterm elections. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 3.5 percent and the Hang Seng Tech index rose 4.6 percent. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.23 percent, while the Shenzhen Component added 0.476 percent. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 1.21 percent and the Topix also gained 1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.77 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4 percent in Australia. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.21 percent. China’s trade data fell far short of expectations, with exports down 0.3 percent and imports down 0.7 percent. Apple suppliers in the region are also in focus as the company warned that COVID restrictions in China were hurting iPhone production. Chinese health authorities renewed their stance of sticking to strict measures that were seen to dampen market sentiment after seeing risk appetite rise amid speculation of “conditional” plans for reopening last Friday.