On Monday, Bloomberg opened higher in Tokyo as Japan and mainland China took center stage for traders, with most of the Asia-Pacific markets closed for holidays.
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Most major currencies held near to closing levels Friday, with little activity in foreign exchange. Australian and New Zealand dollar showed early weakness as investors reacted to a wave of Covid 19 infections in China.
Concerns about China's ability to cope after abandoning its Covid Zero policy is likely to cause a boost to appetite for risk taking. On Friday, a US stock market gauge slumped, suggesting weakness when trading gets underway in Shanghai this morning.
China's National Health Commission said it would stop publishing daily case numbers for the coronaviruses, complicating the task for investors trying to assess the economic impact.
The yen made a small gain after debate on the possibility of the Bank of Japan raising interest rates next year, after last week s surprise adjustment to its 10 year yield target. The Topix stock index was about 0.3% higher.
The figures show on Friday Japan's key inflation gauge accelerated to the fastest pace since 1981, which may support more bets for a shift from the BOJ.
As investors digested data showing that US inflation is continuing to swell and the Federal Reserve's rate hikes are serving their purpose, shares on Wall Street ended Friday s session with gains.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 suffered their third week of losses, though that provided a degree of support for Asian markets. The worst annual performance for global equities in more than a decade has occurred in 2022, as it was the worst year for global equities.
There won't be any cash trading of Treasuries on Monday, which ended a holiday-shortened session lower on Friday. The benchmark 10 year yield went up the most last week since April, ending Friday around 3.75%.
The dollar suffered a weekly drop. Last week s gains took the yen to its highest level since June, as the BOJ's sudden increase in its yield trading band is expected to encourage Japanese investors to bring money home.
The Fed's data shows consumer spending is stagnating and inflation cooling. Consumers year-ahead inflation expectations fell to the lowest since June 2021, according to a survey by the University of Michigan.
The price ofBitcoin was little changed below $17,000 on Monday, as the world continued to reel from the collapse of FTX.
Everything from oil to gold and copper went up on Friday. Oil posted a significant weekly gain as Russia said it may reduce crude production in response to the price cap imposed by the Group of Seven on its exports, highlighting risks to global supplies in the new year.
Some of the main moves in markets are:
The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.9986 per dollar.
The yield on 10 year Treasuries was 3.75% on Friday, seven basis points at a time when the yield on 10-year Treasuries went up seven basis points to 3.75%.
The story was produced with the help of Bloomberg Automation.
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