Asia-Pacific markets set to open mostly lower on penultimate day of the year

Asia-Pacific markets set to open mostly lower on penultimate day of the year


Aerial view by drone of Tokyo Cityscape with Tokyo Sky Tree visible in Tokyo city, Japan on sunrise.

pongnathee kluaythong | Moment | Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets were set to mostly fall Tuesday, after the tech sell-down on Wall Street continued on AI bubble fears.

Nvidia shares dropped more than 1% Monday stateside, giving back some of its more than 5% gain in last week’s period. Palantir Technologies and Meta Platforms also suffered losses, as did Oracle.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.25%.

However, Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a weaker open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 50,405 and its counterpart in Osaka at 50,380, compared with its previous close of 50,526.92.

Investors will be keeping an eye on SoftBank, which announced a deal late Monday to buy data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion as part of its artificial intelligence push.

SoftBank CEO and Chairman Masayoshi Son said the acquisition “will strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers” and advance the firm’s vision to become a leading “Artificial Super Intelligence” platform provider. Shares of DigitalBridge jumped about 10% after the announcement.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 25,603, marginally lower than the HSI’s last close of 25,635.23.

Investors will be focused on China’s military exercises around Taiwan, after the world’s second largest economy announced new drills surrounding the island Monday.

U.S. futures were little changed in early Asian hours.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 dropped 0.35%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.50%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back by 0.51%.

Traders will be looking for home price data due Tuesday stateside at 9 a.m. ET, and the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes at 2 p.m. ET.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.



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