Lujiazui business district in Pudong, Shanghai, China.
Liu Liqun | Construction Photography | Hulton Archive | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell on the day, the last trading day of the year as the holiday was cut short.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.03% lower at 8,714.3.
hong kong Hang Seng Index fell 0.87% to close at 25,630.54, while the mainland’s CSI300 fell 0.44%. China’s economy ended the year on a slightly less gloomy note as factory activity expanded more than expected in December for the first time since March, official data released on Wednesday showed.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.1 in December, beating the 49.2 expected by economists polled by Reuters and above November’s 49.2. Values above 50 indicate expansion.
of MSCI All Country World IndexData from LSEG, which measures the performance of more than 2,500 large- and mid-cap stocks in developed and emerging markets, has risen more than 21% since the beginning of the year, hitting a record high of 1,024.29 on Dec. 26.
Japan and South Korea will be closed on that day.
US stock futures were flat in early Asian trading.
The S&P 500 index fell slightly in the US overnight, falling for the third straight session. The broader market index fell 0.14% to close at 6,896.24, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.24% to settle at 23,419.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.20% to end at $48,367.06.
The average of the three major stocks has fallen since the beginning of the week, dragged down by the decline in tech stocks. Nvidia recorded back-to-back losing sessions, as did fellow AI player Palantir Technologies.
—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Sean Conlon and Liz Napolitano contributed to this report.
