As China Trade Disappoints, Asia's Stock Rally Goes Up In Smoke

The nascent bull case for Asia equities that emerged in recent trading is starting to look shaky.

While Japan is closed for a holiday, key equity markets retreated across the rest of the region, led by declines in Hong Kong and Shenzhen after China released disappointing December trade data and warned of weaker trade growth this year due largely to external uncertainty. It didn’t help that the U.S. government shutdown is showing no sign of ending and S&P 500 Index futures fell as much as 0.9 percent.