A train loaded with coal is ready to leave a coal mine owned by China Energy Investment Corporation in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos City, China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, January 14, 2023.
Wang Zheng | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets are expected to open higher on Friday as some markets return from the Christmas holidays and investors await economic data from the region.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.49% higher as trading resumed after the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a stronger market open, with the Chicago futures contract at 39,745 and its Osaka counterpart at 39,700, compared to the previous close of 39,568.06.
Investors rated November inflation figures from Japan’s capital Tokyowhose overall inflation rate was 3%, compared to 2.6% in October. Core inflation, which excludes the cost of fresh food, rose to 2.4%, falling short of Reuters expectations of a 2.5% rise. Tokyo inflation numbers are widely considered a leading indicator of nationwide trends.
Japan Unemployment rate for the month of November was 2.5%, in line with Reuters estimates and unchanged from October.
Traders await Chinese industrial earnings results for November.
Overnight in the USA, the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses to earn a small profit in weak trading on Thursday after the market posted strong back-to-back gains to start the holiday week.
The blue-chip Dow ended the day up 28.77 points, or 0.07%, at 43,325.80, after losing about 182 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 fell 2.45 points or 0.04% to 6,037.59. The Nasdaq Composite The price also ended the day lower, down less than 0.1% to 20,020.36.
—CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.
