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A worker assembling a loader transmission mechanism at a manufacturer in Qingzhou, China.
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The Australian market opened lower on the last trading day of the year, as investors in Asia awaited manufacturing data from China.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.56% lower on a shortened trading day.
Stock markets in Japan and South Korea are closed for the New Year’s Eve holiday. South Korea’s consumer inflation accelerated in December, increasing 1.9% year-on-year. The CPI stood at 1.5% in November. On a month-on-month basis, prices rose 0.4%.
Traders will be keeping an eye on China’s December manufacturing PMI. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a reading of 50.3, the same as November’s PMI. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity, while a figure below that level indicates contraction.
Hong Kong stock markets have a shortened trading day.
Overnight in the US, stocks fell in one of the last trading sessions of 2024, as a banner year for investors appears to be ending on a sour note.
Trading was choppy all day and the Dow Jones was down more than 700 points from its session lows. There was no apparent news to catalyze Monday’s decline and trading was expected to be light given the shortened week.
He Dow Jones Industrial Average lose 418.48 points, or 0.97%, to close at 42,573.73. He S&P 500 fell 1.07% to 5,906.94, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.19% to 19,486.78.
—CNBC’s Jesse Pound and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
