People celebrate the New Year at the Bank of China building in Central in Hong Kong, China, January 1, 2026.
Lam Yik | Reuters
Asia-Pacific markets are set to open mixed Friday to kick off the new year.
All three major indexes in the U.S. pulled back on New Year’s Eve, but still clocked gains on a year-to -ate basis.
Some Asian markets were still closed for the holidays, including Japan and mainland China. South Korea’s markets will open an hour later, at 10 a.m. local time.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day flat.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 25,648, marginally higher than the last close of 25,630.54.
Singapore’s economy expanded 5.7% year on year for the fourth quarter, driven mainly by strong manufacturing growth in the three months through December. The latest reading is faster than the revised 4.3% growth in the previous quarter.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his New Year message that the country had clocked a stronger-than-expected 4.8% expansion for the full year of 2025.
U.S. stock futures were looking up in early Asian hours, with S&P futures up by 0.15% and Nasdaq-100 futures climbing 0.12%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.16% higher.
On Wednesday stateside, the S&P 500 dipped 0.74%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.76% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.63%.
However, the S&P 500 still locked in a 16.39% gain year to date.
The Nasdaq Composite rode AI enthusiasm to a 20.36% advance, and the Dow rose 12.97% in 2025, hindered a bit by its lack of tech representation.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.