By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Monday morning, as investors digested the latest, disappointing Chinese data.

China’s fell 0.57% by 10:52 PM ET (2:52 AM GMT) while the edged down 0.15%. The data showed that the grew 6.8% over the previous year, fell 2.9%, increased 4%, and declined 11.1% in April 2022. This was 6.1%.

Hong Kong’s was down 0.34%.

Japan’s was up 0.38% while South Korea’s edged down 0.13%. Australia saw a slight increase of 0.19%.

The People’s Bank of China moved to effectively cut the interest rate for new mortgages over the weekend, and the central bank will also release its loan prime rate on Friday. Although Shanghai is partially loosening its COVID-19 lockdown, some analysts expect a cut in the rate on one-year policy loans later in the day as the country’s measures to contain the latest COVID-19 outbreak continue to bite on the economy.

The key question in the bond market is whether or not economic concerns could be used to stem the U.S. Treasury sale of 2022. At 2.94%, the benchmark U.S. 10-year yield rose to 2.94 percent. Investors are also concerned about high inflation, rising borrowing costs and the ongoing war in Ukraine, which could all lead to a downturn.

Investors are still hesitant to call a bottom in equities, despite the 17% global share drop in 2022. “There is a belief we could feasibly see a short-term calming before another leg lower with a greater degree of panic involved,” Pepperstone Group head of research Chris Weston said in a note.

However, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:) Senior Chairman Lloyd Blankfein urged companies and consumers to brace for a U.S. recession, saying that the risk is “very, very high.” The firm’s economists now expect the economy to expand 2.4% in 2022 and 1.6% in 2023, down from the previous 2.6% and 2.2%.

The war in Ukraine, precipitated by Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, continues and tensions remain high especially as Finland and Sweden moved toward joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“The markets are being defined as volatile, fragile and to some extent unstable,” with bonds again looking like a haven asset adding to an “interesting mix,” Citigroup Inc. senior investment specialist Mahjabeen Zaman told Bloomberg.

Over the course of the week, a number Fed policymakers will be speaking. The first speaker is John Williams from New York Fed. Jerome Powell (Fed Chairman) and other Fed officials will talk on Tuesday. Patrick Harker, Philadelphia Fed president, will then speak the next day.

Other than that, it will publish the minutes from the May policy meeting, and the G-7 central banksers and finance ministers meeting the day after.