People celebrate the New Year during a ceremony at the Juyongguan Great Wall (also known as Juyongguan) in Beijing, China, January 1, 2026.
Maxim Shemetov | Reuters
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as investors assessed the Trump administration’s threat to Greenland over the weekend and focused on key economic indicators from China.
Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump and European leaders engaged in tense exchanges over Arctic territory, with Trump threatening to impose tariffs on eight European countries and demanding control of Greenland, which is part of Denmark.
European leaders responded by calling the threat “completely wrong” and “unacceptable.”
In Asia, China is scheduled to release fourth-quarter GDP statistics, as well as retail sales, urban investment and industrial output for December.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index futures were at 26,640, below the HSI’s closing price of 26,844.96.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.85%, leading the decline in Asia, while TOPIX fell 0.46%. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond rose to 2.218%, the highest level since 1999.
The Korean market bucks the broader trend; Kospi The small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.15%, while it rose 0.18%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 opened the day 0.19% lower.
On the commodity side, spot silver and spot gold prices both hit record highs. Silver last traded up more than 4.17% at $93.7 per ounce, while gold last traded 1.8% higher at $4,676.94 per ounce.
In the US on Friday, the S&P 500 ended just below flat, marking a down week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index also fell 0.06%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.17%.
Three major indexes hit intraday lows on Friday after President Trump said at the White House that he wanted National Economic Council Secretary Kevin Hassett to remain in his current role and that he might not be chosen to be the next Fed chairman.
Hassett is seen as a more market-friendly option than the new front-runner to replace the current Fed chairman, former Fed director Kevin Warsh, and is expected to demonstrate a desire to keep interest rates low.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
