Asia markets poised to open mixed as investors await China LPR, Japan inflation data this week

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific stocks were set to open mixed Monday as markets kickstart what ING calls a "quiet" week for economic data from the region .

Key data this week from the region will include China's loan prime rate announcement, set for Wednesday.

ING said no change is expected in China's LPR, with the one-year rate currently at 3.1% and the five-year LPR at 3.6%.

Japan will release trade data on Tuesday and October headline inflation numbers on Friday, while Australia's central bank on Tuesday will release minutes of its meeting earlier this month..

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to fall, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,170 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,040 against the index's last close of 38,642.91.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 started the day down 0.45%.

Money Report

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 19,458, pointing to a stronger open compared to the HSI's close of 19,426.34.

On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes on Wall Street declined as investors worried about the path of interest rates and sold off pharmaceutical stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.70%, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.32% and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.24%.

Losses in pharmaceuticals weighed on the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500, with Amgen falling about 4.2% and Moderna sliding 7.3%.

This comes after President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday that he planned to nominate vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

— CNBC's Brian Evans and Alex Harring contributed to this report.

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Small-cap stocks pull back this week

Small-cap stocks have seen outsized losses this week, reversing course after the postelection rally.

The Russell 2000 has dropped around 4% this week, hurt in part by a slide of more than 1% on Friday. The S&P 500 has lost just 2.2% over the course of the week.

That marks a turn after the Russell 2000 jumped more than 8% last week. Small caps are seen as beneficiaries of President-elect Donald Trump's victory, as his preference of deregulation can aid tinier firms.

Despite this week's declines, the Russell 2000 is up nearly 5% in November. It is poised to finish 2024 more than 13% higher.

— Alex Harring

Health care leads weekly losses

The health-care sector lost 5.3% on the week, making it the worst-performing group in the S&P 500.

Materials and information technology were the following biggest decliners, falling 3.1% and 2.9%, respectively.

The only sectors on pace to end the week in the green were financials and energy, which were up 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

Chicago Fed's Goolsbee still sees rates on a downward path

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee expressed confidence Friday that the central bank is on the way to achieving its economic goals and can continue to lower interest rates.

"To me, the conditions on the dual mandate side are looking pretty balanced," Goolsbee said during a CNBC "Squawk Box" interview. "So we should be thinking over the next year, year and a half, the rates need to come down."

However, Goolsbee also endorsed phrasing Thursday by Fed Chair Jerome Powell that the Fed does not need to be in "a hurry" to cut.

"Unless the conditions change, I'm still feeling good about us being on a 12- to 18-month path of getting the rates down to something like neutral," he said.

— Jeff Cox