Aerial view of vehicles traveling on a road through the central business district of Beijing, China, October 5, 2020.
Zhang Qiao | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets in December opened mostly in the red on Monday as traders awaited new manufacturing data from China and rising expectations for interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve this month.
Traders are pricing in an 87.4% rate cut at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on December 10, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Investors in Asia will be keeping an eye on China’s November Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Business Index from RatingDog, a private survey of primarily export-focused companies.
The indicator follows official data released on Sunday showing China’s factory activity improved slightly in November but continued to contract for the eighth straight month. Services weakened as gains from before the holidays faded.
Japanese benchmark Nikkei Stock Average The index fell by 1.3%, and the TOPIX index fell by 0.72%.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.66%, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.29%.
Australia’s ASX/S&P200 index fell 0.23%.
hong kong futures Hang Seng Index The index opened higher trading at 26,022 as against the previous close of 25,858.89.
US stock futures were little changed in early Asian time after a strong week.
In the U.S., Wall Street returned from the Thanksgiving holiday on Friday with shorter trading hours. of Nasdaq Composite The stock rose 0.65% to close at 23,365.69, marking its fifth consecutive day of gains.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 0.54% to settle at 6,849.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 289.30 points, or 0.61%, to end at 47,716.42.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
