Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower on the penultimate trading day of 2024

Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower on the penultimate trading day of 2024


Sunrise scene of Seoul downtown city skyline, Aerial view of N Seoul Tower at Namsan Park in twilight sky in morning. The best viewpoint and trekking from inwangsan mountain in Seoul city, South Korea

Mongkol Chuewong | Moment | Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower on the penultimate trading day of this year, after Wall Street declined on Friday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.3% lower in its first hour of trade.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a weaker open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 40,210 compared to the index’s previous close of 40,281.16.

This week, traders await China’s manufacturing PMI on Tuesday, while markets will be closed on Wednesday for New Year’s Day holiday.

U.S. stocks fell Friday, led by technology names, but major indexes still rose for the week.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 333.59 points, or 0.77%, to 42,992.21, falling for the first time in six sessions. The S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 5,970.84. The Nasdaq Composite slid 1.49% to 19,722.03, as Tesla dropped about 5% and Nvidia fell 2%.

—CNBC’s Yun Li and Pia Singh contributed to this report.



Source

Engine failure forces United Airlines flight to return to Washington, D.C.-area airport
World

Engine failure forces United Airlines flight to return to Washington, D.C.-area airport

A United Airlines airplane is towed from a gate at Newark Liberty International Airport on August 10, 2025, in Newark, New Jersey. Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images A United Airlines flight bound for Tokyo was forced to return to Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia on Saturday afternoon after experiencing an engine […]

Read More
Two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed in suspected Islamic State attack in Syria
World

Two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed in suspected Islamic State attack in Syria

A view of damaged Syrian General Staff Headquarters following multiple Israeli airstrikes in central Damascus, Syria on July 16, 2025. Bakr Al Kasem | Anadolu | Getty Images Three U.S. military personnel — two Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter — were killed on Saturday by a suspected Islamic State attacker who targeted a convoy […]

Read More
Todd Combs’ stellar 15-year career at Berkshire started with an unsolicited letter to Charlie Munger
World

Todd Combs’ stellar 15-year career at Berkshire started with an unsolicited letter to Charlie Munger

Todd Combs, one of Warren Buffett’s handpicked investment lieutenants and a key executive at Geico, Berkshire Hathaway’ s crown jewel insurance business, is leaving the conglomerate after a 15-year tenure that helped define the firm’s post-Buffett transition. Combs, 54, first caught the attention of Buffett’s late partner Charlie Munger, who famously recounted receiving an unsolicited […]

Read More