a man wearing a protective mask amid the coronavirus disease covid19 outbreak walks past an electronic board displaying shanghai composite index nikkei index and dow jones industrial average outside a brokerage in tokyo japan march 7 2022 reuterskim kyunghoon hong kong may 23 reuters  asian stocks faced an uncertain start on monday as persistent inflation fears and the prospect of rising interest rates dogged the global economic outlook which remains mired in negative sentiment mscis broadest index of asiapacific shares outside japan miapj0000pus was 004 higher after us stocks ended the previous session with negligible gains for the day the index is down 36 so far this month in early trade australian shares axjo gained 02 while japans nikkei stock index n225 was 085 higher the yield on benchmark 10year treasury notes rose to 27883 from its us close of 2787 on friday the twoyear yield  which rises with traders expectations of higher fed fund rates touched 25869 up from 2583 uncertainty in market sentiment this week follows the sp 500s sp500 meagre gains on friday of just 001 the nasdaq ixic declined 030 while the dow jones industrial average dji rose 003 despite the marginal gains the sp 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 inflationary pressures remain top of mind for investors given german wholesale inflation figures published on friday showed a higher than expected jump indicating prices will remain elevated in the short term future germanys producer price index for april rose 28 for the month which meant annual growth was a persistently high 335 in australia the labor party ended a near 10 year rule of conservative government at a general election on the weekend read more while labor has promised climate housing and enhanced social welfare reforms analysts do not believe the change in government will crate major implications for the nations economy in our view there was little proposed by the incoming government during the election campaign that at this stage requires us to revisit our economic forecasts cba economists wrote on monday put another way our economic forecasts and call on the rba are unchanged despite the change of national leadership in early asian trade the dollar rose 004 against the yen to 1279  it is still some distance from its high this year of 13134 on 20220509 us crude dipped 004 to 11024 a barrel brent crude rose 023 to 11268 per barrel the concerns over global economic growth has prompted renewed support for gold gold prices saw the first weekly gain since midapril as safe haven demand was boosted by concerns over economic growth amid high inflation anz analysts said in a research note on monday a weaker us dollar has also boosted investor appetite spot gold was 03 higher early monday at 18470226 per ounce