Most Asian stock markets are performing lower on Monday. Traders await the release of inflation data from the United States, Japan, and Europe, which could offer more clarity on potential global interest rate changes. Some traders are taking profits after recent market gains. Despite this, Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday.
The Federal Reserve is still expected to begin reducing rates eventually, although perhaps not as soon as investors had previously expected.
The Australian stock market is slightly down, following mixed signals from Wall Street on Friday, with energy stocks sustaining losses, which were almost made up for by miners, financial, and technology stocks. However, the Australian market still maintains its position above the 7,600.00 level.
Major mining companies, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals, and Mineral Resources are witnessing slight gains, with the former two seeing an increase of 0.1-0.2 percent and Mineral Resources by 2 percent. BHP Group, however, is seeing a slight dip of 0.4 percent.
Oil stocks are generally lower with Beach Energy, Origin Energy, Santos, and Woodside Energy seeing losses of -1, -0.3, -4, and -1 percent respectively. In tech stocks, Xero, Zip, WiseTech Global, and Afterpay owner Block are seeing increases of almost 2 percent, almost 5 percent, almost 1 percent, and more than 1 percent respectively, but Appen has declined almost 6 percent.
Gold miners are showing higher numbers. Gold Road Resources, Northern Star Resources, Evolution Mining, and Newmont are experiencing gains of almost 3 percent, -1 percent, 1.5 percent, and more than 2 percent respectively. Resolute Mining is holding steady.
The big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking, are faring well with the first three returning slight gains and ANZ Banking remaining stable.
In other news, shares in Kogan are soaring by 20 percent, as the online retailer returned to profit in the latter half of December, allowing them to reinstate their dividend, despite a dip in revenues. TPG Telecom shares are down 8 percent due to the company's increased expenses and reduced net profit. Alumina Ltd. shares are up 7 percent after receiving a non-binding proposal from Alcoa to acquire the company. Adairs shares are up 11 percent after the group reported that its first half-earnings before interest, tax, and amortisation exceeded analyst expectations.
The Aussie dollar stands at $0.655 on Monday.
The Japanese stock market is up following the national holiday, continuing from previous session gains. The market, indicated by the S&P/ASX 200, is currently above the 39,300 level. Mixed signals from Wall Street on Friday led to mixed success for index heavyweights and financial stocks, and weakness in technology stocks.
In the tech sector, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are down by 2.5 percent and almost 1 percent respectively, while Advantest is slightly up by 0.2 percent.
The banking sector is doing better, with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial gaining more than 1 percent, 1.5 percent and almost 1 percent respectively.
Exporters are mostly seeing highs. Canon, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are showing gains of 0.3 percent, almost 4 percent and more than 1 percent respectively, while Sony is down almost 2 percent.
The U.S dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Monday.
In other parts of Asia, markets in New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Indonesia have all experienced a decrease, varying between 0.2 and 0.9 percent. However, the markets in Malaysia and Taiwan have seen a minor increase of 0.1 percent each.
On Wall Street, stocks continued Thursday's significant rally into the early trading hours of Friday. However, the rest of the trading session wasn't as dynamic. Even with the inconsistent trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 managed to hit new record closing highs.
The major averages fluctuated before ending the day with marginal differences. Though the Nasdaq Composite fell 44.80 points or 0.3 percent to 15,996.82, the Dow surged 62.42 points or 0.2 percent to 39,131.53. Simultaneously, the S&P 500 climbed slightly, up 1.77 points or less than a tenth of a percent, to 5,088.80.
In Europe, the major market indices increased. The French CAC 40 Index grew by 0.7 percent, while both the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.
Also, crude oil futures showed a significant fall on Friday. This decrease was largely due to concerns about future demand prediction and recent data that showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories. Consequently, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April fell $2.12 or 2.65 percent, ending at $76.49 per barrel.
