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Asian stocks mixed on US wage slump, oil jitters

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Asian stock markets started the new week mixed, as trading sentiment was tame after last Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report gave a mixed view of the U.S. economy. Global oil prices, which extended their slide on Monday on the back of weakening demand in Europe and Asia, also added to the gloom. Both Brent crude and U.S. crude are at their lowest since April 2009. Wall Street set the mood, with benchmarks finishing in the red, as the December jobs report topped expectations but hourly earnings declined. Figures from the Labor Department showed the U.S. economy added 252,000 to payrolls last month , after generating an unexpectedly strong 353,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 5.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 1 percent, while the S&P 500 shed 0.8 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, Japanese markets are closed for the "Coming of Age Day".Read More Why lower oil isn't giving Asia markets wings Mainland indices mixed China's benchmark Shanghai Composite index retreated 1.7 percent to finish at a one-and-a-half-week low on Monday, after reports of upcoming new listings this week. According to state media Xinhua, 22 new share offerings were putting pressure on pricing, with Wednesday along seeing 10 new offerings. Among the most active stocks, Agricultural Bank of China (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 1288-SZ) and Citic Securities tanked 2.1 and 4 percent, respectively. Financials and property majors were weak on Monday, with China Construction Bank (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 1939-SZ) closing down 2.3 percent, while China Merchants Property and Poly Real Estate traded more than 3 percent lower In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index bucked the Asia-wide losing trend to inch up 0.5 percent, on the back of more than 10 percent gains in each of Hutchison Whampoa (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 13-HK) and Cheung Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 1-HK) shares, which accounted for nearly 5 percent of the local stock index. The stocks were in focus after Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, announced plans for a restructure that will split Cheung Kong into two listed companies, one focusing on property and the other on telecoms, retail and energy, in a bid to boost their value and attract more investors.

ASX falls 0.8% Australia's S&P ASX 200 index put up a sluggish performance on Monday, while the Australian dollar bounced to a three-and-a-half-week high above the 82 cents level against the U.S. dollar (Exchange:.DXY). A fall in iron ore prices chilled miners, with big players like Fortescue Metals and BHP Billiton closing down 3.2 and 2.2 percent and junior miners such as Atlas Iron (ASX:AGO-AU) plummeting 15 percent.

Energy producers were downbeat as well, as the continued fall in oil prices ignited "risk-off" mode in the beaten-down oil and gas sector.

Santos and Oil Search lost 5.2 and 0.7 percent, respectively. Woodside Petroleum, which was in focus after signing a memorandum of understanding with India's Adani to cooperate on liquefied natural gas market, pulled back nearly 2 percent.

Read More Should yield chasers set their sights on Australia? Kospi slips 0.2% South Korean shares edged down amid declines in index heavyweights. KB Financial (Korea Stock Exchange: 556-KR) closed down 3 percent, while Hyundai Motor (Korea Stock Exchange: 538-KR) plunged nearly 2 percent on news that South Korea's auto exports fell for the second straight year in 2014. Sister firm Kia Motors (Korea Stock Exchange: 27-KR) fell 0.8 percent in choppy trade on late Monday. Builders were mixed despite home sales transactions last year showed an 18 percent rise on-year; GS Construction led advances by rising 2.4 percent while Samsung C&T (Korea Stock Exchange: 83-KR) and Daewoo Engineering & Construction receded nearly 2 percent each. Tech shares were the flavor of the day, with LG Electronics and SK Hynix making gains between 1.2 and 0.7 percent. Samsung Electronics (Korea Stock Exchange: 593-KR) - the heaviest weighted stock on the Kospi index - closed up 0.2 percent on Monday. Meanwhile, the South Korean won (Exchange:KRW=) touched a three-and-a-half-week high of 1,082 against the greenback, as an unexpected fall in U.S. wages prompted investors to cut long positions in the U.S. dollar. Read More This week in Asia: China, Japan and India in spotlight Emerging markets India's Nifty index closed up 0.46 percent ahead of a flurry of economic data: Consumer price inflation for December accelerated to 5 percent, driven by higher food costs while industrial output for November was up 3.8 percent year-on-year. Among gainers, Indian software services exporter Infosys (National Stock Exchange of India: INFY-IN) extended Friday's gains to rise more than 1 percent, after it surprised investors by sticking to its full-year sales target. Bucking the downtrend in Asia, Vietnam's VN stock index closed up 0.8 percent to a 5-week high while Thailand's SET (The Stock Exchange of Thailand: .SETI) index advanced 0.1 percent to a one-week high on Monday.