Asian Markets Trade Mixed

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Asian markets opened the first session of the week mixed, with Japan's Nikkei index advancing 0.6% and the Australian S&P/ASX shedding 0.6%.

Markets in Hong Kong were closed Monday for a holiday.

The most important event during the Asian session was Korea's gross domestic product numbers, which showed that the economy expanded 2.9% in the third quarter from the prior quarter. This gave a strong push forward to the Korean stock market, with the Kospi index jumping almost 1%.

S&P 500 futures had a flat Asian session, moving just a few basis points since the day started. Following Friday's selloff, S&P futures are trading just above the 1075 support area, the same place where the market had bottomed during the last two weeks.

Japanese markets advanced after Toyota Industries, a subsidiary of carmaker Toyota(TM Quote), managed to beat analysts' estimations. This has lifted the carmaker and consumer sectors among the regions. Further gains in the carmaker sector came from South Korea, where Credit Suisse upgraded Kia Motors to "buy."

The basic materials companies lost some points during the Asian session, reflecting the activity from the energy market. Over the last month of trading the basic materials sector was the best gainer in the global market.

Producer prices from Australia have risen less than expected during the third quarter. According to a report released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics producer prices rose to 0.1%; the expectation was for a 0.3% increase. The report also showed that the rise was stunted because of higher electrical, water, and fuel costs which increased 12.1% during the third quarter.

Crude oil for December delivery was recently trading at $79.71 a barrel, down by 59 cents. Crude oil lost a few points during the Asian session, as some investors ponder whether the current valuation doesn't reflect the state of the global economy. Crude oil dropped even as the dollar index weakened during the Asian session.