Train loaded with coal ready to leave a coal mine belonging to China Energy Investment Corporation on Jan. 14, 2023 in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.
Wang Zheng | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday, as some markets return from the Boxing Day holiday and investors await economic data from the region.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.68% as trading resumed after Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.51%, while the Topix added 0.56%. South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.58% while the Kosdaq traded 0.61% lower.
Investors assessed November inflation numbers from Japan’s capital of Tokyo, which saw its headline inflation rate come in at 3%, compared to 2.6% in October. Core inflation, which excludes costs of fresh food, rose to 2.4% missing Reuters’ expectations of a 2.5% rise. Tokyo’s inflation numbers are widely considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide trends.
Japan’s jobless rate for the month of November came in at 2.5%, in line with Reuters’ estimates and unchanged from October.
Traders await China’s industrial profit figures for November.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses and squeezed out a small gain in thin trading Thursday after the market’s strong back-to-back gains at the start of the holiday week.
The blue-chip Dow closed the day 28.77 points, or 0.07%, higher to 43,325.80 after losing about 182 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 dipped 2.45 points, or 0.04%, to 6,037.59. The Nasdaq Composite also ended the day lower, falling less than 0.1% to 20,020.36.
—CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.