Lujiazui Business District in Pudong, Shanghai, China.
Liqun Liu | Construction photography | Hulton Archive | Getty Images
Asia Pacific markets fell on the holiday-shortened and final trading day of the year.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.03% to close at 8,714.3.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index fell 0.87% to close at 25,630.54, while the mainland CSI 300 was 0.44% lower. China’s economy ended the year somewhat less gloomyas factory activity increased in December for the first time since March, beating expectations, according to official data released on Wednesday.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.1 in December, above the 49.2 forecast by economists polled by Reuters and above the 49.2 reading in November. A value above 50 indicates expansion.
The MSCI All Country World Indexwhich measures the performance of over 2,500 large and mid-cap stocks across developed and emerging markets, has risen over 21% year-to-date and hit a record high of 1,024.29 on December 26, data from LSEG showed.
Japan and South Korea are closed on this day.
U.S. stock futures were flat in the early hours in Asia.
Overnight in the USA, the S&P 500 fell easily and recorded their third defeat in a row. The broad market index lost 0.14% to close at 6,896.24, during the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.24% to settle at 23,419.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.20% to end at 48,367.06.
The three major averages slumped earlier in the week, weighed down by losses in the technology sector. Nvidia recorded two consecutive losses, as did other AI players Palantir Technologies.
—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Sean Conlon and Liz Napolitano contributed to this report.
