Asian shares posted a subdued open on Monday, with risk appetite tempered by caution ahead of a data barrage from China.
Third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) for the world's second-biggest economy, alongside September retail sales, industrial output and fixed-asset investment (FAI), will be released at 10am local time on Monday.
China's growth in the July-September period likely slowed to 6.8 percent from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of 50 economists, down from 7 percent in the second quarter. If correct, the forecast growth would mark China's weakest pace of expansion since the first quarter of 2009, when it tumbled to 6.2 percent.
Read More What will stabilize growth in China?
An impressive lead from Wall Street did little to help sentiment. U.S. stocks finished higher last Friday, chalking up a third week of gains, on the back of surging General Electric (NYSE: GE) shares and upbeat consumer sentiment data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) and S&P 500 (CME:Index and Options Market: .INX) closed up 0.4 and 0.5 percent respectively, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) edged up 0.3 percent, posting its first three consecutive weeks of gains since February.
Nikkei dips 0.2%
Japan's Nikkei 225 (Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225) nudged down below the flatline, as a modestly stronger yen (: OSEJPY=) dented sentiment for export-oriented plays.
Panasonic (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6752.T-JP) tanked 1 percent, while carmakers such as Nissan (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7201.T-JP), Suzuki Motor (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7269.T-JP) and Honda (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7267.T-JP) slumped between 0.8 and 1 percent. Sharp (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6753.T-JP) plummeted 2.1 percent.
Financials were also sold-off; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8306.T-JP) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8316.T-JP) notched down 0.5 and 0.7 percent respectively, while Daiwa Securities (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8601.T-JP) sagged 0.4 percent.
Bucking the weakness, Nintendo (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7974.T-JP) elevated 2 percent following a report by the Wall Street Journal last Friday that the company has started distributing a software development kit for its new videogame platform code-named NX.
In other news, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the country's economy was expected to continue recovering moderately even though the slowdown in emerging markets was weighing on exports and output.
"The BOJ's quantitative and qualitative easing is exerting its intended effects," Kuroda said in a speech at a quarterly meeting of the central bank's regional branch managers.