19 November 2025, China, Shanghai: Boats sail past downtown Shanghai on the Huangpu River. The tallest building on the skyline is the Shanghai Tower (rear).
Bernd von Jutrczenka | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Friday as investors awaited China’s inflation data coming out later in the day.
China’s consumer price inflation for December is expected to come in at 0.8% year on year, according to economists polled by Reuters, compared to 0.7% in November.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.54%, while the Topix climbed 0.46%. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.41% and the small-cap Kosdaq slid 0.21%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ticked slightly below the flatline. Shares of Rio Tinto slid almost 5% after the miner announced late Thursday it had entered early-stage buyout talks with Glencore. A successful merger would create a mining giant valued at nearly $207 billion.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was set to open higher, with its futures contract trading at 26,312, against the index’s previous close of 26,149.31.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on Hang Seng Bank shares after shareholders on Thursday approved a plan by majority owner HSBC to take the lender private.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours ahead of a key December jobs report and a potential U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tariffs. The Supreme Court could issue a ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which could have an impact on trade policy and the nation’s fiscal situation.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose while the Nasdaq Composite came under pressure as investors moved away from technology stocks.
The 30-stock Dow climbed 270.03 points, or 0.55%, and ended at 49,266.11. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.44% and settled at 23,480.02. The S&P 500 advanced 0.01% and closed at 6,921.46. Among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, information technology was the laggard, falling more than 1%.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.