asian shares were mixed on monday, weighed down by u.s. losses amid expectations of a tightening gap between the u.s. presidential candidates in the run-up to the election next week. the nikkei stock average closed down 0.1%, having hit a two-day low. the shanghai composite index was last down 0.1% and korea<u+2019>s kospi ended down 0.6%, while the s&p/asx 200 finished up 0.6% on utilities stocks and the hang seng pinballed from losses to gains before closing 0.1% lower on friday, the federal bureau of investigation said it was re-examining how democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton used her email while secretary of state. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s policies are generally seen as more favorable to asian markets than those of her republican rival, donald trump. according to recent polls, the lead mrs. clinton held over mr. trump shrank following the news. election day is nov. 8. u.s. markets, buoyed initially by firmer third-quarter gross domestic product data, reversed from early gains to end lower on friday. <u+201c>politics is dominating everything at the moment,<u+201d> said chris weston, chief market strategist at ig markets. <u+201c>the fbi investigation has seen a bit of money flowing into people backing a trump win,<u+201d> and people are concerned. in japan, equity markets came under additional pressure on monday as industrial-production and retail-sales data missed economists<u+2019> forecasts. among individual stocks, shares of japanese industrial conglomerate hitachi closed up 5.1%, after the company said its net profit grew for the half-year ended in september. shares of major japanese shipper mitsui o.s.k . lines also ended up 5.6% following news that mitsui and two of its japanese peers, nippon yusen and kawasaki kisen kaisha , would set up a joint venture to integrate their regular container-ship operations, making it the sixth-biggest player in the industry. nippon yusen jumped 6.4% and kawasaki kisen rose 0.4%. elsewhere, aia group , a blue-chip insurance stock traded in hong kong, ended down 4.8% on news that beijing was cracking down on money flows from china into hong kong insurance products. in korea, the won strengthened slightly, pressuring exporters. political unrest also added to the uncertainty for equity investors, with thousands of koreans protesting in seoul last weekend, calling for president park geun-hye to resign following revelations that she had shared classified government documents with her adviser choi soon-sil. among the bright spots, hanjin shipping ended up 24.8% following reports friday that five shipping groups, including hyundai merchant marine , submitted preliminary bids for the embattled operator<u+2019>s assets. meanwhile, oil prices slid lower after a weekend meeting among members of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries failed to cement an agreement to cut production . the oil cartel agreed last month to cut production by as much as 2%. a detailed proposal is now expected to be submitted to opec<u+2019>s 14 member nations on nov. 30. brent, the global price benchmark, was last down 0.5% at $49.44 a barrel, weighing on producers<u+2019> share prices across asia. in australia, oil search closed down 1.9%. japan petroleum exploration finished 2.6% lower, while cnooc fell 0.2% in hong kong. looking ahead, the market will be watching for gdp data out of europe and u.s. price-index data later monday, as well as global central-bank decisions later this week, ahead of the election next week. <u+201c>the main thing is the election now,<u+201d> said tareck horchani, deputy head of apac sales trading at saxo markets. <u+201c>we could have some bigger selloffs in equities in asia around the uncertainty of what<u+2019>s going to happen.<u+201d> <u+2014>shuli ren, kosaku narioka and devlin barrett contributed to this article. write to ese erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com
asian shares hit by clinton probe  - wsj
ese erheriene