Asia stocks hovered near four-month highs on Monday after a mixed performance on Wall Street at the close of last week, while the dollar firmed against the yen following strong U. S. employment and manufacturing data.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asia stocks hovered near four-month highs on Monday after a mixed performance on Wall Street at the close of last week, while the dollar firmed against the yen following strong U. S. employment and manufacturing data.
Spread-betters expect European markets to start on a cautious note, with London’s FTSE and Paris’s CAC seen falling marginally and Frankfurt’s DAX expected to open up a tad.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a shade weaker. It had scaled a four-month peak on Friday amid a surge by its global peers.
Trade was subdued with many of the region’s markets closed for the Lunar New Year. China’s financial markets are closed all week, while those in South Korea are shut until Thursday.
Hong Kong’s stock exchange closed at midday, with the Hang Seng up 0.2 percent.
Australian shares ended half a percent higher, as did Japan’s Nikkei.
U. S. S&P 500 e-mini futures last traded basically flat.
On Wall Street on Friday, optimism from a surge in January U. S. job growth was offset by a weaker-than-expected outlook from Amazon.com Inc that battered retail stocks.
