Asian stocks under pressure due to inflation, Chinese tech selloffs

Asian stocks came under pressure on Monday as persistent worries about inflation and rising interest rates dogged the global economic outlook and fresh selling in technology stocks weighed on Chinese markets.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, after US stocks ended the previous session with negligible gains for the day. The index is down 3.6% so far this month.

A negative tone was evident as Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 0.38% and the mainland's CSI300 Index dropped 0.37%, led by a 1.5% decline in technology firms.

Australian shares gained 0.42% while Japan's Nikkei stock index was 0.8% higher. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.7883% from its US close of 2.787% on Friday.

The two-year yield, which rises with traders' expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 2.5869%, up from 2.583%. Uncertainty in market sentiment this week follows the S&P 500's meagre gains on Friday of just 0.01%.

The Nasdaq declined 0.30% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.03%. Despite the marginal gains, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recorded their seventh straight weeks of losses, the longest losing streak since the end of the dotcom bubble in 2001.

The Dow suffered its eighth consecutive weekly decline, its longest since 1932 during the Great Depression.